Leap of Faith
by Authoress-in-training
Summary: We all know how the third season of Winx Club ended, but what if Bloom ended up taking Baltor's deal?  What if she helped him get the spells back to go after the Ancestresses?  What if... she ended up feeling something more for him?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Power of the flame, leave me. Go and find Baltor's fire!"

As I said the spell aloud, I felt the strangest sensation come over me. It was as if my body was being drained of its magical energy (not a pleasant sensation, I can tell you that – my experience with it freshman year was one time too many for me); yet at the same time I felt like I was floating on a cloud, like my physical form was gone but my magic essence had remained to float around the world forever, like a ghost. Then I realized it must have been the effects of the spell, and gave myself a pat on the back for doing it correctly (well, not _really_, given my current situation, but you know what I mean, right?)

Unfortunately, I didn't have too much time to revel in my triumph before I had to confront the next hard thing – finding Baltor's magic essence. Praying that the spell would work like Maya had showed me, I let the power of the flame lead me towards Baltor.

Judging from his screams, I could only guess that I'd done the spell correctly. My magic essence penetrated through the skin of the beast, searching for the heart of his power. When I finally found it, I felt myself taking a physical form again – although I knew it was just for show; my true physical form was out in the cave. But it _was_ nice to have a physical form again, instead of just being a magic flame.

"I did it, Baltor. I traveled to the inner sanctum of your Dragon Fire. And now that I'm here, I'm gonna put out your Dragon Fire flame once and for all."

Reaching for my fairy dust vial, I shot waves of Dragon Fire energy mixed with fairy dust from my palms. All I could think about was finally finishing this and going home, to Sky.

What happened next was not what I'd expected. The fire before me fizzled a little, and before I knew it, Baltor appeared before me, back in his original wizard form. (I have to say it was kind of a relief to see his familiar face instead of that hideously ugly beast we'd been fighting.)

"Thank you, Bloom," he drawled. "It was a little hot in there."

"But you–" I started.

"It was bold of you to come back here, that's for sure, but what did you think you were going to achieve?" Fire burned all around him, forming his mark in the flames beneath his feet. Strangely, he didn't seem at all affected by the fire burning all around him, although that was most likely because like me, he was only a spiritual manifestation of his true physical form.

"I guess that's what you're about to find out," I spat, Dragon Fire energy pulsing at my palms.

He seemed to be expecting something like that. So of course, he didn't waste time trying to divert me. "I have a better idea, Bloom – something that will help me achieve my destiny and _you_ finally locate your birth parents." The fire slowly burned out, creating a thick veil of dark smoke that surrounded us.

"I don't believe you know anything about my birth parents!"

"But the ancient witches do. In fact, they hold the key to both our destinies; for you finding Oritel and Miriam, and for me achieving the greatness that I deserve. So this is what I propose to you, Bloom. Turn your rage on the Ancestresses, and join me. Together, we will be strong enough to defeat them and make them give us what we want." Baltor looked almost triumphant here. "You and I are the same, Bloom. We are _bookends_ – matching pieces of the greatest ancient magic ever to exist."

Somehow, part of me wanted to believe him. I wanted a good reason to go after the Ancient Witches. I wanted to meet the parents I had never known. I wanted to know I wasn't alone in this world. But still… "The only thing we have in common is our Dragon Fire, Baltor. And right now mine is going to fight yours until one of them is out!"

I expected Baltor to quickly take me up on my offer of a fight, but instead he gave me a look that seemed to be asking if I was serious. "You're hesitant about that, aren't you?"

My eyes narrowed, trying not to look surprised at his comment. "You wish."

He laughed, as though he had figured out the meaning of life. "Really?" He leaned back against the smoke, and it took a solid form when his essence came in contact with it. "Bloom, let me tell you something. I want to finally finish what I started seventeen years ago. But–" he waved his hand around the space we were in, "as you can see, that's a bit out of the question right now."

"And that's my problem how?"

"Of course not. A powerful being knows when to admit defeat. And I underestimated you – that really sealed my fate."

"Humph." I did my best to hide the smirk forming on my face.

"However," Baltor went on, "you and I both know if you wipe me out of existence, we'll both be unhappy."

"My friends…" I began.

"Your friends make all of the decisions in your life? They and Sky tell you what to do and you just listen?"

"Of course not," I quickly replied, trying not to sound embarrassed.

"Well then, what do they matter? This is your battle, not theirs."

I glared down at him for a second. Then – very hesitantly – I started beating my wings at a slower pace, so I was lowering to the ground. Something told me it was a bad idea, but there was something about the way Baltor was speaking that just enthralled me. I kept going until I reached the top of a smoke pillar. Just like the smoke near Baltor, it solidified when it came in contact with my essence. I perched on top of the pillar like a bird, still looking down at Baltor. "What do you suggest?" I asked cautiously.

"What I said before. If I regain control of my body, we can face them together. I'll get the respect they took from me when they turned me into that beast–"

"You mean he can't stay?" I asked with a fake pout. "What a shame. I thought that look was more you."

"Of course you did," he muttered, though he looked a bit amused to me. "But along with that, you get your parents back." I bit my lip as he went on. "Sparx may be a frozen wasteland, but most of the main city is just under a sheet of ice; the Ancestresses froze it that way in case they ever got back to it. I'll help you navigate through the city: your parents would most likely be frozen within it, or the way to get to them is from an access point there."

I stared at him evenly. "What's the catch?"

"Well," he drawled, "of course, my power isn't as advanced as it was, considering you broke the seal on the Agador Box…"

"You need to steal those spells back." I was hardly surprised.

"Technically it would be _we _need to steal them back, but yes. And of course, any spell you're interested in would be yours to keep; just a little added bonus. Now, that should only take a few weeks to do, with your magic helping us…"

"And then we would go to Sparx?"

"Exactly. From there we find the ancient witches, and from there Oritel and Miriam." He shot me a grin that I'm sure he thought dazzled me. "Everybody wins."

I looked back at him, silently thinking it over in my head. Finally I spoke. "Let's say I'm considering this. I want a few conditions on my part. One: when you… _we_ take those spells back, it would involve the most minimal amount of pain and suffering possible."

"Done." He raised his right hand, as if to prove he was speaking the truth.

"The Trix are _not_ involved. No freeing them from Light Rock, and no letting them know in any way what this is about. They have a bad habit of getting out of places they're supposedly trapped in."

"I'd noticed. Anything else?"

"One more thing: once my parents are freed and you get your revenge on the Ancestresses, you agree to leave the magical dimension. Go to some far-off universe, live underground, change your name, get a cat, I don't care. Just _never_ come back. Ever. And if I see you again after that, I won't hesitate to rip your essence to shreds."

Baltor grinned at me. "That's a bit dark for you. And wouldn't you miss me?"

"No."

The grin disappeared. Baltor's eyes raked over me, from the heelless sandals on my feet to the fairy dust pendant at my neck, finally looking into my eyes. I held his gaze, trying to prove to him (and myself) that I wasn't afraid.

"Well then Bloom," he said finally, pushing himself off the smoke wall – which immediately dissipated back into just smoke – and stepping forward so he was about four feet from the pillar. "Do we have a deal?" He stretched out his hand in my direction.

Carefully, I stood from the pillar and flew down until my feet touched the ground. After what felt like an eternity (even though it was probably more like a few seconds), I raised my hand and slid it into his palm. His grip was oddly reassuring, as though he was trying to convince me I had made the right choice. But I barely thought about it as I said, "We have a deal."

"Brilliant," Baltor said, releasing my hand and turning to apparently examine the smoke.

"Yeah, maybe." My voice was uncertain. I watched him from behind for a few seconds before finally realizing that I was still holding my hand out, and quickly pulled it back, folding my arms across my chest. "Now, wise guy, how do you plan to fake your own death, considering I can't kill you?"

He laughed. "You leave that to me. With the Dragon Fire connection, you're really the only person who can know if I'm dead. You just have to say that I am."

"Simple enough," I said, more to myself than anything. "But wait, how exactly do I get out of here then? Maya told me once the flame was extinguished, I'd return to my own body, but…"

"How do you get out without doing it?" Baltor filled in, turning back to face me. I nodded in response. "Well, that shouldn't be hard."

"What do I need to do?" I asked, still trying to debate whether this was a good idea or not.

"Oh, you don't need to do anything," Baltor grinned, as though there was some joke I just wasn't getting. "I just need to throw you out."

My eyes widened. "Throw me out?"

"Just think of it as some roller-coaster on Earth," he said, sounding annoyingly pleasant as he came back toward me.

Suddenly nervous, I started backing up until I hit the smoke. It solidified against me, pinning me there. "You know, I hate roller-coasters," I tried with a small grin.

Baltor smirked at me before grabbing my forearms. "In that case Bloom," he said, as blue magic began glowing under his palms, "I would hang on tight."

"To what?" I couldn't help but snap.

That earned me a laugh. "You know, I think we're going to make a good team." With that, Baltor jerked me towards him, and then threw me back into the darkness of the smoke.

* * *

"Bloom? Bloom? Come on Bloom, wake up…"

I opened my eyes slowly. The first thing I saw was Sky's relieved face grinning at me. I immediately felt a little better. "Hey. Did I miss much?"

"Bloom, darling!" I found myself suddenly enveloped in Stella's death grip hug. "We thought you were done for!"

"Done for?" I asked when Stella finally released me. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Flora said, "Baltor just suddenly started fading. He was obviously down, but we didn't know if you were being dragged down with him."

"Well, I'm fine. I'm sorry I scared you guys."

"But did it work?" Riven asked me. "Is Baltor gone?"

I closed my eyes, focusing on my own inner flame. Along with mine, I could feel another strong presence, very close. I wanted to open my eyes and look around; I knew Baltor was around somewhere, just watching to make sure I wouldn't give him away. And that was a creepy feeling.

_ Do your friends make your decisions for you, Bloom?_ Baltor's voice echoed from the darkness behind my eyes._ Or is this your battle to finally win?_

"Well, Bloom?" Sky's voice brought me back to reality. "Is he gone?"

I opened my eyes, and put on the best grin I could. "Yep. He's completely gone."

I didn't need to see Baltor to know that he was smirking at me.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Hello and welcome! This fic was co-written by emberfire411, and it's a "What-if" AU: in this case, what if Bloom said yes to Baltor's final offer in the season finale.**

**So what did you think? As always, reviews will motivate us to get ch. 2 up faster. ;-)**

**- Authoress and ember**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Nice performance back there on Tides. Honestly, I wasn't sure if you had it in you, but good work. They seemed thoroughly fooled."

Startled, I yelped, dropping the little bottles of aromagictherapy oils Flora had given me as a graduation present. They shattered the second they made contact with the ground, spilling scented oil and glass shards all over the floor. "You can't just sneak up on me like that! See what you just made me do?"

"I apologize," Baltor said, stepping out of the shadows. And when I say 'stepping out of the shadows,' I mean _stepping out of the shadows_. Literally. One minute, the shadows cast by the late-afternoon sun were dancing on the wall across from me, and then suddenly Baltor just materialized, as if he himself was a shadow brought to life. "Let me fix that for you." He snapped his fingers, and the broken shards of my gift from Flora flew into the air and pieced themselves back together, the spilled oils somehow separating into their original pure states and flying back into their vials as well. The whole process took less than five seconds, and then I was holding the bottles in my hands again, good as new. I stared down at them somewhat disbelievingly, before I remembered who I was talking with. Then I just sighed, rolled my eyes, and stuffed them inside one of my bags.

"You can't just show up here whenever you feel like it!" I snapped impatiently, moving to my dresser to get out more of my clothes. "What if Flora or the others had been in here with me? They'd know you were still alive, and then the entire plan would be over before I even left Alfea."

Baltor chuckled. "Please, Bloom, give me at least a little more credit than that. I knew you were alone – I've been waiting for quite some time to talk to you again. Trouble is, it's been incredibly difficult to get you alone. You certainly are the woman of the hour, aren't you?"

"Well, I did vanquish _you_. Around here, that makes one pretty popular." I couldn't help getting in a few jabs, despite the fact that we were now technically on the same side – whatever side that was.

Baltor smirked. "Too true. Anyway, we need to talk strategy." He eyed my half-full suitcases and piles of clothing, books, and assorted junk that I'd amassed over my three years at Alfea derisively. "This is a waste of time. You're not going to want to carry much stuff where we're going."

"Yeah, well it'd look a little suspicious if I left Alfea with just a camping bag, wouldn't it? Where are we even going to stay while we're off… collecting spells?"

"Oh, don't worry. We'll be fine."

I bit my tongue to keep from asking more, since I knew from experience it was nearly impossible to get information out of Baltor if he didn't want to talk (the term 'closed book' was probably modeled after the guy). "Anyway, I figured I'd ship this stuff back to my adoptive parents on Earth. Everyone would know something was up if I didn't at least make a show of packing my stuff. I'll set aside the bare essentials in a littler bag to take with us."

Baltor didn't say anything, so I figured my plan must've at least somewhat gotten his approval. "So where are we going first?" I asked, packing more stuff into one of the bags. My conscience screamed at me to back out of this deal while I still could, but I silenced it. To find out more about my parents, I would do almost anything… even make a deal with the devil.

Yes, you heard it from me now: I had no delusions about what I was about to do. I knew that agreeing to this was morally wrong, and that I was helping a power-crazed psycho regain the power – power that _I_ had stolen back from him in the first place – to potentially take over the universe. It was the definition of irony, not to mention completely stupid and thoughtless. But if I had one weakness, it was my parents. I would do virtually anything if it meant I would be reunited with them… including this.

"What's this?" Baltor asked, poking through one of my open drawers and pulling out… something pink with lace. Oh no. He did _not_. I glared at him and whipped the offending garment out of his hands.

Baltor, meanwhile, didn't even seem fazed. "Did you get that to wear for _Sky_?"

"Shut up!" I snapped, stuffing it into one of my open bags. A couple months ago, when Sky and I made up after what happened on Eraklyon, Stella had given me a little present, insisting it was "necessary". Of course, I had no clue she was talking about _lingerie_ until I'd opened it and seen what she'd picked out for me – a tiny pale pink silk slip-type nightgown trimmed in lace, with matching pink panties. Immediately, I'd insisted she take it back, but she wouldn't hear of it, so I'd stuffed it into the bottom of one of my dresser drawers and vowed to forget about it. (There was no way I'd ever even _dream_ of wearing it for Sky…)

Before I could say anything to prove my story, or before Baltor could get in another smart remark, I heard a knock on the door, and jumped almost two feet off the ground. "It's me, Bloom," I heard Stella say from outside. "Can I come in?"

I turned around to whisper-yell at Baltor to get out, but when I fixed my gaze upon the place he'd been standing, there was nothing there. "Come in, Stella!" I yelled, grabbing another stack of clothes out of my open dresser.

"_There_ you are, girl. We've been looking all over for you!" Stella exclaimed, surveying my chaotic side of the room. "We're all heading into Magix. You know, as kind of a last goodbyes thing? Everyone has a favorite store or restaurant or something they want to visit, so we figured we'd invite the guys and make a day of it. Anyway, everyone's been searching all over the school trying to find you. You're the only one left – everyone else is all ready."

"Gimme just a minute to get my purse," I said, and Stella nodded as she headed back out the door, closing it behind her.

The second the door closed, Baltor materialized from the shadows again. "Geez, you've gotta stop doing that," I said, after I got over my initial shock at having him appear in my room again.

Baltor just smirked. "I'll let you go say your goodbyes to Magix in a minute. Just remember – after your graduation, meet me in the woods by Cloud Tower."

"Where in the woods?" I asked, annoyed that this was all he was giving me. "How will I know where to find you?"

"Dragon Fire connection, remember? You've got to get good at honing that – it's a skill that just might come in handy during our travels."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Will you at least tell me where we're going first?"

"Oh, I think that'll be a surprise."

"What? No fair!"

His golden eyes narrowed slightly. "Exactly." Noticing my extremely pissed-off expression, he added, "Don't worry. Just trust me."

_Trust him_. Yeah, my capacity for doing that was a little low. But what other choice did I have at this point? "Alright," I said reluctantly.

"Excellent," he said. "I'll see you again soon – very soon." Then with that, he disappeared into a cloud of golden mist, which soon faded.

I stood there, just staring at the space he'd so recently vacated, before grabbing my bag and heading out the door to join the others.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****So how are we doing so far? Do you guys like where this is going?**

**By the way, next chapter will start the main plotline of them going around the realms to steal spells. While I can't promise anything, we are still trying to think of places for them to go and spells/magic items for them to steal, so if you have any ideas, put them in your review and we'll think about it. (If we do wind up using your suggestion, I'll give you a shout-out for sure.)**

**Reviews, of course, are author brain fuel, so the more you give us, the quicker we'll put up another chapter.**

**Later, peoples!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"I'm gonna miss you, sweetie."

"You too, Flora," I insisted, giving her what seemed like the hundredth hug in the last two days. Graduation had ended about an hour ago, and the Winx Club girls were saying our last, long goodbyes. I had a feeling I was savoring mine a bit more than everyone else, but only because I knew my life was going to be very different after today.

"So, what are everyone's summer plans?" Musa asked, twirling her blue cap around her finger, even though we'd all ditched the robes as soon as we could.

"The usual," Stella said absently, counting off on her fingers. "Shopping, royal functions, shopping, time with Brandon, shopping…"

I grinned. That was my best friend. "I'm doing a little realm-hopping for a few weeks. You know; see the sights and all."

"Will a certain blonde boy be accompanying you?" Stella asked, with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows.

_Oh, if you only knew, Stel._ "Nope," I lied through my teeth. "Just me. Maybe Sky can tag along later."

"Hey, you know that boy would follow you anywhere," Layla grinned. "But you enjoy your quality time. And if you're taking suggestions, the crystal sea caverns on Tides are beautiful during the summer."  
"I'll keep it in mind, thanks."

"And don't forget," Musa reminded me, "after the summer, we're going to get to work on finding your parents, Bloom."

I fought the pangs of guilt that hit me square in the stomach. "Right. You guys really don't have to do this, you know."

"Don't be ridiculous, Bloom," Tecna said. "Not only is the probability of success higher with the six of us working together – along with the Specialists, of course – but it's what best friends do."

Great. As if the hole in my stomach couldn't get any bigger. "Thanks, Tec."

"No problem."

"Are you sure you're okay, Bloom?" Flora asked, peering at me curiously. "You seemed a little jumpy these last few days."

A feeling of enervation came over me. More than anything, I wanted to tell my friends what I was really up to. After three long years of ups and downs together, it seemed _wrong_ that I was hiding something this huge from them.

_Are you really considering this again?_

I tried not to jump. It hadn't even been a week, but I'd already discovered that Baltor had an annoying habit of eavesdropping on my thoughts at the worst times. And as much as it pained me to say this, I was already kind of used to hearing his voice in the back of my head.

_I have no idea why you bother. You and I both know they won't understand. Now forget about them and hurry up. We've got work to do._

I blew a few strands of hair off of my face. "I'm fine, Flora. Really. Just nervous about what's coming next. The whole future thing, you know?"

I prayed my lie was convincing. And much to my relief, Flora smiled and gave me another hug. "We're only a phone call away if you need us."

"I know."

"Ah, group hug!" Stella grinned, wedging herself between Flora and me. We all laughed as Tecna, Layla, and Musa joined in too.

"Well, gang," Stella said, pushing back, "I really should get going. My dad's having some official function today, and I still need to go buy a dress."

"What about the one you just bought for prom?" Tecna asked.

"Tec," Musa grinned, "don't bother. It's Stella logic."

We all laughed – even Stella, eventually – and then hugged again. As we broke apart, I felt something tighten in my throat. I was going to miss these girls so much.

_I hope they'll still like me, once they know the truth._

* * *

I slung my duffel bag from one shoulder to the other, keeping the weight evened out. The terrain under my feet was uneven, and though the bag couldn't weigh more than five pounds, it wasn't exactly helping me keep my footing. I glanced around the thick foliage, looking for any kind of movement. The place seemed devoid of any living thing, which was pretty creepy if you think about it. But then again, I couldn't imagine any animal _wanting_ to live near here.

I leaned back against one of the trees and closed my eyes, trying to use my Dragon Fire to connect with anything. I couldn't feel anything – no presence, no sign of life besides the trees (which, thanks to the advanced spells Flora had taught me, I could tell weren't very friendly!). I opened my eyes and looked around again.

Where _was_ he?

For a second, I considered a really bad possibility: Baltor had just been manipulating me like he'd tried countless times before. He wasn't really interested in helping me, and he'd tricked me into freeing him. And now, he was already long gone, back to collecting spells and wreaking havoc on the magical dimension. And it was entirely my fault.

Suddenly, I sensed a strong source of magical energy to my left. All previous thoughts left my head as I turned and peered cautiously through the trees. After a second, I took a step forward to try and find the source. However, my lack of grace got the better of me; I tripped over one of the large tree roots bulging up from the ground.

But before I could hit the ground, I landed on something – or more accurately, some_one_. I was pressed against their chest, my toes the only thing touching the ground.

I looked up, surprised, and found Baltor smirking at me. "You'd think a person with your background would have a bit more grace."

The surprise quickly disintegrated, and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Well maybe if you'd stop appearing out of nothing, I'd manage to watch my surroundings more."

"You shouldn't blame others for your misfortune. It's a bad habit."

"Though in most cases," I reminded him, "it is your fault."

He grinned wickedly, as though remembering a good time. "I suppose. But did you really think I was going to leave without you?"

I raised my eyebrows, trying not to look surprised. "How did you know that?"

"It's a little trick I'll have to teach you."

"I have a feeling any trick I learn from you can't be very good."

"Then why did you agree to this?"

I rolled my eyes. "You know what, forget it." I looked down, realizing I was still in Baltor's arms. "You can let go now."

With a small chuckle, he pushed my heels back onto solid ground. The moment he let me go, Baltor suddenly turned around and started walking through the forest. "Come on."

I sighed, annoyed, and grabbed my bag off the ground. I had to admit, Baltor was difficult to keep up with, especially with this terrain. While I stumbled every few yards or so, he carelessly darted through the foliage as though he could walk the path blindfolded. "Okay," I said finally, after I'd been following him through the forest silently for a while. "I've been listening to you this whole time. I could really use some answers right now."

"Like what?" he called back to me.

"Well, where are we going, exactly?"

"I thought you trusted me." His voice sounded slightly smug.

I knew what he was going for, and I tried to keep from sounding sarcastic. "I do trust you–"

"Then what are you worried about?"

"How about I'm worried about where we're going? Where we're staying?"

Finally, Baltor turned to face me. "We'll stay where we can… what was it you were calling it earlier? Realm-hopping?"

"Yeah, because it'd be totally normal to have some maid walk into a hotel room one morning and find stacks of ancient spell books and scrolls."

"Relax. I have an old hideout back here that I'll keep all the spells in. As for us, not having to portal somewhere every day will be a good way to conserve power."

I hated to admit it, but he was right. "All right, fine. So… exactly what is it we're going after? All of the spells you had before?"

"Some of them," Baltor replied, already moving again. "It would look a little odd if all the spells that were just returned to their realms suddenly disappeared again."

"And how are we going to get into the main city on Sparx? The last time I was there, I didn't even know I was walking on it; the ice was too thick."

"We'll need something powerful enough to break the ice, keep us alive in the conditions, and be enough of a power inducer to keep us fighting if we run into any Ice Dragons. They'll need to be small so that they can easily be carried, and simple enough to be cloned so that we don't attract attention when they're taken. Well," Baltor added, more as an afterthought, "at least until someone discovers they're stolen."

I raised my eyebrows. "And what do you expect to find that fits all of those categories?"

"Have you ever heard of the Guardian Fairies?"

I paused for a second. "No… who are they?"

With that, Baltor turned again and smirked at me. "So I take it you've never heard of the Gifts of Harmony either?"

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Suggestions of realms for them to go to are still appreciated, although as always, no guarantees.**

**And since I know if I don't say this, we're going to get this question a million times in reviews: the Guardian Fairies and the Gifts of Harmony that Baltor's referring to at the end **_**are**_** from the movie (Secrets of the Lost Kingdom). Just wanted to clear that up.**

**Review, please!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"So this is Vallisto…" I'd learned about the famous realm of Vallisto in my first-year History of the Realms class. Their magic was derived from the seasons. The planet was essentially split into four quarters. In each quarter, it was always one season. So no matter the time of year, it was always winter, spring, summer, _and_ fall. Each quarter was sort of like its own mini-realm, with specialized magic derived from each season, and even their own ruling families. But the true ruling family of Vallisto lived in the "middle ground" city – a place where the boundary lines of each quarter met at a cross.

_I realize that you haven't seen much of the realms, but please remember that we're not tourists. Now stop gawking_.

_You know, the whole talking in my head thing is kind of pointless when I'm right here_, I thought, knowing he'd hear it.

_Maybe. But it's a lot more fun this way. And the less attention we draw to ourselves, the better._

"Seriously, stop it. I'm getting really weirded out."

Baltor laughed. "As you wish. But being able to communicate telepathically is a skill that will most likely come in handy. I'd teach you… but you said you wouldn't want to learn any skill from me."

I rolled my eyes. "Where are we staying?" I asked, pointedly ignoring his last statement.

"Hope you packed winter clothes."

"Are you for real? Why can't we stay in Spring?"

"Spring and Summer are real touristy. In Winter, things are cheap and they don't ask questions. Besides, in case you conveniently forgot, our powers come from the Dragon _Fire_. A heat spell should be no problem."

I rolled my eyes, and considered saying that since we both had Dragon 'Fire', it'd be easier to keep our power levels up in Summer. However, I was determined to prove I could do this. The last thing I wanted was Baltor going back on our deal and me getting blamed for letting him live. "Fine. Can we just get there already? I'm tired of lugging around this bag."

He laughed. "Am I traveling with Bloom, or Stella? How much stuff could you possibly need anyway?"

"Easy for you to say. Did you even bring anything?" A thought occurred to me. "Do you even _have_ anything? I mean, besides those hideous old-fashioned clothes."

He didn't say anything, and I let it go, wondering if I'd struck a nerve. (Like I cared if I did…) A few more minutes passed in silence, as I followed him to wherever we were going.

When we passed into Winter territory, I started shivering. In Magix, the weather was always sunny and mild, except for the rare occasions when it rained – and even then, Alfea's protection bubble kept out the rain. So I wasn't used to the cold like this. I tried to think of a heat spell, but my mind was blank.

Suddenly, the air around me felt warm and comfortable. I looked around to see if we'd accidentally crossed into Spring, but nope, we were still walking through snow banks, and icy wind was still swirling all around us – I could see it. Yet my body was warm, even in my jeans and crop top.

I watched a snowflake drift on the wind and start to fall towards my shoulder. But when it got to about a foot above me, it stopped, hovering in the air above me for a second, before it slid down an invisible wall. Hesitantly, I reached out my hand and felt something like the Alfea protection bubble, but hot to the touch. After a few seconds, I yelped and yanked my hand back quickly, waving it slightly to compensate for the stinging burn on my palm from touching the bubble for too long.

"Don't do that – you're drawing attention to us." Baltor had been silent for so long that hearing his voice startled me. Only then did I realize that he must have cast a heat spell on me.

"Thank you," I said softly, surprising myself with what I was saying. Never in a million years would I have ever thought I'd be thanking _Baltor_ for anything – unless I was being sarcastic. Then again, I never thought I'd be traveling around the realms stealing spells with an escaped convict who destroyed my home planet.

"It's nothing. I was sick of listening to you shivering." Something about the slightly brusque tone of his voice made me think there was more to it, but since I knew asking would be pointless (closed book, remember?), I said nothing.

When we were about twenty feet from what looked like a hotel, Baltor grabbed my hand and pulled me behind a row of abandoned buildings. "What are you–"

"Shhh," he hissed, pressing a finger against my lips. I bit my tongue to keep from saying anything, and waited until he removed his finger. Without giving me an explanation for earlier, he said, "Disguises."

"Excuse me?"

"Even though Winter is the most neglected part of the realm and no one asks questions, it's still safer if we use disguise spells to change our appearances. You don't think it'd send up some red flags if someone recognized either one of us?"

Instantly, I thought of our first magic lesson freshman year – changing your hair color – and laughed inwardly. Back then, before I'd known anything about my powers or my past, all I could do was get my bangs to stick straight up in the air. Now, as I closed my eyes and concentrated, I could feel my hair changing color.

"You look… different," Baltor said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"I don't have to be _pretty_; I just have to be different. So that means I did a good job." When I caught a glimpse of myself in the window of a nearby store, I almost flinched, because the black hair was really different. But at the last second I caught myself, not wanting Baltor to see just how shaken I was with the disguise. Instead, I eyed him. "What about _your_ disguise? You're the one who really needs it, after all."

He laughed. "Relax. I did a cloaking spell. It's easier and takes less energy than doing several different spells to change my appearance for real, since I can't just change my hair color the way you can."

I frowned. "Then how come _I _can see through it?"

"You're worried about me, aren't you? That's sweet," he drawled mockingly. "I boosted the spell with some Dragon Fire energy so it'll last longer. And because of our Dragon Fire connection, which I've recently re-opened, you can see through it. But for the rest of the realms, the disguise will suffice."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I was not worried about _you_," I protested. "I was worried that the whole thing would unravel, and then I'd have lied to my friends and Sky for nothing."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him purse his lips when I mentioned Sky, but it disappeared in a second. "If you say so," he said, still teasingly. "Come on, let's go. It's getting late."

I wanted to protest, but he was already walking. Since I knew from experience that if I didn't start following I'd be lost behind, I rolled my eyes and started walking.

The nametag on the smiling blond girl behind the counter read ANNABELLE. "Hello and welcome to the Snowflake Inn at Vallisto's Winter territory. How can I help you today?"

"We'd like a room for the night," Baltor said, laying down a credit card. "Cost is no objection, but we would like two beds."

Her fingers flew over the keyboard at a fast pace, making clicking noises. "I'm sorry, but we only have one room left, and there's only one bed. It has a pull-out couch, though."

"That's fine," Baltor said, pushing the credit card towards her. "Book it, please."

"Your names?"

"Jack Edwards," he said smoothly.

Until that moment I hadn't even realized that we were going to need fake names. But of course we couldn't book hotel rooms as our real selves. Baltor's name alone would send up a zillion red flags.

Unfortunately, I hadn't given a fake name any thought whatsoever, so when Annabelle turned to me, I said the first thing that came to my mind. "Um… Miriam Peterson."

Annabelle's fingers kept clicking at sixty words a minute. "How long will you be staying with us? Just the night?"

"Most likely," Baltor said. "We have some… business to take care of at the middle ground city tomorrow."

"Okay…" She finally stopped typing, pushing the credit card back across the counter. "Well, there's a club in Spring that's having an amazing party tomorrow night. You should come, if you can." She leaned forward and angled her head towards Baltor. "Your girlfriend can come too," she added, almost as an afterthought.

"She's not my girlfriend," Baltor said quickly, and my cheeks flushed bright red.

"Oh really? Well then you should definitely check it out," she said, leaning closer towards him and batting her eyelashes. I laughed inwardly – if only this girl knew who she was _really_ flirting with.

Annabelle was still doing her version of flirting, which involved a lot of batting her eyelashes and flipping her hair. (Hmm… I wonder if she was related to Mitzi?) "Um… could we have a room key please?" I said finally.

"Oh… right. Sorry. Here you go." She slid two slim cards across the counter. "Enjoy your stay at the Snowflake Inn."

"So… Miriam Peterson, huh?" he asked once we were out of earshot.

"I didn't realize we'd need fake names, so I just said the first thing that came to my mind. Thanks for the heads up on that, by the way."

"I thought it was obvious."

"Of course you did." We reached the elevator banks, and I pressed the UP button. "So what exactly does your disguise look like?" I asked.

Baltor smirked. "Jealous?"

"Of course not!" I snapped. "It was just annoying, having to watch that."

"Get used to it. Unless you'd rather pretend to be my girlfriend – that would get most of them to back off."

I made a face. "I think I'd rather watch."

"Suit yourself." The elevator door beeped open.

"Hey, Mr. All-Knowing Smart Guy – if Winter is supposed to be the least popular, then why was there only one room left in the hotel?"

"Contrary to popular belief, as it seems, I don't know everything. This place is relatively cheap and close to where we need to go tomorrow. Besides, it's just for one night."

"Whatever," I said, opening the door with my key card. "But this means you're sleeping on the couch." I dropped my bag on the single bed to prove it.

Strangely enough, he didn't complain or fight for the bed, even though we both knew that if he'd wanted to, he could have easily overpowered me. Instead, he sat down on the couch, as I launched myself onto the bed after my bag. It creaked noisily as I wriggled around, trying to get comfortable, and I could hear Baltor laughing to himself. Finally, it was quiet.

"Are you hungry?" he asked after a moment of awkward silence – something I'd come to know very well, considering how many times it had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

"No," I said truthfully. The sheer craziness of the situation – that I was in a cheap hotel room somewhere on a realm I'd never been to before with the man who up until about a week ago had been my sworn enemy (and was the reason for my screwed-up past) – had taken away any chance I might've had of eating anything. But since I certainly couldn't tell Baltor that, I lied, "Watching Annabelle fawning all over you like a celebrity-crazed fangirl made me lose my appetite."

I couldn't quite tell if he believed me or not, but since he didn't say anything, I figured I was in the clear.

A large yawn escaped my mouth, and I realized then how tired I was. It wasn't late, but after everything that had happened since I woke up in my shared dorm room with Flora for the last time, I was absolutely exhausted.

"Tired, huh? Get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day."

I fought to keep my eyes open. "You're not getting away with that so easily. Where are we going tomorrow? What are we… taking here?" Even after everything I'd done so far – lying, saving Baltor, agreeing to this in the first place – I still had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that I was going to _steal_ something, without a real good reason. (_You're doing it to save your parents_, said a little voice in the back of my head. Yeah, well, considering everything, I still wasn't completely convinced that was a good enough reason.)

"Like I said to that girl at the front desk, we're going to the middle ground city. Now go to sleep. I can see you trying to fight it, and you'll need your strength for tomorrow."

Since I knew trying to argue with him would get me absolutely nowhere, I acquiesced. I'd brought pajamas, but lacked the energy to get up and go to the bathroom to put them on (and I certainly wasn't going to change out here with Baltor watching). So I kicked off my shoes and pulled back the covers, still fully dressed in my regular clothes, and nestled down into the small mountain of pillows on the bed. I'd just barely closed my eyes when a thought occurred to me.

We might have a temporary truce of sorts for now, but I still didn't trust Baltor. And leaving myself totally vulnerable and open to attack while he watched me sleep (I still wasn't convinced that he himself slept, considering the amount of times we'd fought him at night in Cloud Tower) was maybe the stupidest idea I could've had.

In my falling-asleep daze, it took me longer than usual to remember a protection spell. I whispered it under my breath, wishing I were better with non-spell magic and vowing that I'd learn soon. The air around me shimmered a bit, and I could feel the spell working. Satisfied, I pulled the blankets up higher on my body and curled up in the surprisingly comfortable bed.

"A protection spell, Bloom? Really?" Again, I'd just barely closed my eyes when Baltor's voice broke my sleepy haze. "You really don't trust me?"

"For now, not as far as I could throw you," I retorted snippily, too tired to do anything else. I wondered how he could have possibly known about the protection spell, then decided I didn't care enough right now and just wanted to sleep.

"Well, then, we'll have to work on that." Mercifully, he let me sleep after that.

My last coherent thought was that the next month or so was going to be very, very interesting.

* * *

I awoke the next morning to bright light flooding through the curtains on the full-length window on the wall adjacent to the bed. "Rise and shine, _princess_," Baltor said. "We've got a lot to do today."

I yawned and rubbed my eyes. "Did you have to open the curtains? Wasn't there any other way you could've woken me up?"

"Several, but they would've been blocked by your protection spell."

"Oh please. You could've countered my spell and we both know it." I sat up against the mound of pillows and prayed my hair didn't look like a total mess.

Baltor smirked. "True, but that wouldn't have exactly helped my cause. Here," he said, holding out something. "I got you some breakfast."

It turned out to be a blueberry muffin and orange juice. Nothing fancy, but I was starving after skipping dinner last night. "Your cause?" I asked, stuffing a huge piece of the muffin into my mouth.

"Getting you to trust me? Or did you just forget everything that happened last night?" I noticed he wasn't eating anything, which only added to my speculations about what basic human needs he did or did not actually need.

The digital clock on the nightstand said it was nine o'clock in the morning. We'd arrived on Vallisto at around seven o'clock Vallisto time. If the math was correct, that meant I'd slept for over twelve hours. No wonder I felt so sluggish waking up. I swallowed another giant piece of muffin and washed it down with some juice.

"So now will you tell me what we're getting?"

He sighed. "Along with the Gift of Harmony, there are several spells I'd like to acquire from the palace spell library. I'll be taking care of those, while you get the Gift of Harmony."

"Wait, what? We're splitting up?" The words were out of my mouth before I realized what I'd said. But seriously – my first time doing this and he wanted me to go alone?

Baltor looked almost amused. "We'll be able to cover more ground and get out of here faster if we split up. And it's not like I'd trust _you_ to get the right spells from the library. Relax – you'll be fine. It's not that hard."

"Easy for _you_ to say."

"Princess Varanda will be finishing her formal fairy education soon, and then she'll become the Guardian Fairy of Vallisto. The Gift of Harmony will be taken out of the vault so it can be easily accessed for the ceremony. All you'll have to do is get through some guards. Does that sound too hard for you?"

It did sound a little tricky, actually, considering I'd never done anything like this before, but I certainly wasn't going to admit that to him. "Alright, fine."

"Then let's get going."

"Now? You've _got_ to be kidding me. It's ridiculously early!"

"It's not _that_ earlier. And besides, we'll need time to scope out the place. Or rather, you need to find out which vault in the palace is holding the Gift of Harmony. I'd suggest looking in the one closest to Princess Varanda's room."

"Right," I said uneasily, popping the last bit of muffin in my mouth. "Thanks for the tip."

Baltor raised his eyes to look at mine, a smirk on his face. "What's wrong? Nervous?"

My eyes automatically narrowed at him as I finally threw the covers back and got up out of bed. I was not going to give Baltor the satisfaction of knowing I was intimidated by the idea of stealing something as powerful as a Gift of Harmony. "You wish," I said, grabbing whatever clothes I'd packed at the top of my travel bag. "Just try and stay hidden. And remember; _least_ amount of pain and suffering possible."

He rolled his eyes. "I remember. Meet back here at five o'clock. Will that be enough time for you?"

"More than enough," I replied, heading towards the bathroom to change.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****For the record, that idea about Vallisto being divided into 4 sections for each of the seasons is an original idea. Do not borrow without permission, s'il vous plait!**

**Ciao!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"One more time. Your name is…"

I glanced at the guy out of the corner of my eye (and through the bars of the cell) before turning my attention back to the window. The man, dressed in a very official-looking Vallisto guard uniform, made an annoyed-sounding noise. "All right then, don't talk. You're only making it harder on yourself."

"Oh trust me," I muttered under my breath, "_I_ won't be the one ticked off when this is over."

I couldn't tell from his facial expression whether he'd heard me or not. "We're running the hair sample we got from you anyway. We'll know who you are in about ten minutes."

"Great. That gives me ten minutes to figure out how to escape this hellhole." I was mostly being sarcastic, but evidently the guard didn't know what sarcasm was.

"Don't even bother. This place is escape-proof."

"Gee, thanks for the warning," I shot back. The threat still looming, he turned on his heels and retreated back to a room where I couldn't see or him. The second he was gone, I slumped down against the stone wall of the cell.

_I am _so _dead._

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. _It only took you three hours to screw this up? Nice work, Bloom_. Well, it wasn't my fault… completely.

See, after a bit of searching, I finally located the vault that contained the Gift of Harmony. Baltor's advice had been more accurate than I thought; the vault _was_ right around the corner from Princess Varanda's room. But unbeknownst to me, Varanda was actually in her room, and somehow overheard me. And I didn't have it in my heart to actually _hurt_ a bunch of guards who were just doing their job.

So, long story short, I'd ended up thrown in here, about to screw up everything. And to make matters worse, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't reach Baltor through our Dragon Fire connection. The guards had put a magic shield around the perimeter of the cell, so everything from my Enchantix to a basic fireball was impossible (even though for some odd reason the spell hiding my hair was holding up – thank _God_). Even though I hated to admit it, Baltor was, at the moment, my last hope.

I banged my head against the wall, wincing at the pain that shot through my head but almost feeling like I deserved it. No matter how you looked at it, I was screwed.

Footsteps echoed from wherever the guard had disappeared to, and I could hear low murmurs along with an electric hum. If the machine the guard was telling me about was true, I didn't have much time.

_Quit feeling sorry for yourself, Bloom,_ I mentally pep-talked. _ You _can_ get out of here, get that Gift of Harmony, and get out before anyone knows._

That plan quickly faded as I looked around the cell. Every spy movie I'd ever rented back in Gardenia had made it seem like breaking out of a cell was easy. However, with no windows, the task was much more daunting.

A loud _bang_ sounded from the other room. My eyes slid curiously to the open door as I heard a few grunts and thuds. I briefly saw a guard cut across the open doorway, and much to my shock, saw a bolt of energy follow him. Another grunt, and the room fell silent.

Cautiously, I walked over to the cell door and peered through the bars, trying to get a better look inside. There was a light rustling noise now, and I could hear a single voice, although it was too low for me to make out what they were saying. I tried to touch the bars, but the second I did, the magic barrier shocked me. Yelping in pain, I yanked my hands back and waved them in the air to try and stop the pain.

The sounds from the other room stopped the moment I made a sound. I held my breath, hearing footsteps slowly echo on the ground, and then a shadow as whoever it was came into view.

(I guess I don't need to tell you that it was Baltor.)

There were at least three thick spell books under one of his arms (who knows how many he'd already taken?), and in his other hand was a glowing fireball. I guess he hadn't expected to find me here. His expression was a look of pure shock, something I'd never seen on his face.

Not sure what to say, I just blurted out the first thing that popped into my head. "That machine in there has a sample of my hair, and I think it's doing a DNA scan or something."

The shock quickly melted, replaced with a look of carefully controlled annoyance. "How long have you been here?"

I bit my lip. "Almost an hour. Maybe."

Baltor cursed under his breath before disappearing into the other room. There were a few unpleasant sounds of metal being crunched, as well as a few sparks flying. "Honestly Bloom," he snapped, returning to wherever I was being held, "what was so hard about what I asked you?"

"It wasn't my fault!" I protested. "Princess Varanda heard me with some spell!"

"Of course she did! Haven't you ever studied Vallisto's magic? The most common spell is the Wind of Winter, which is perfect for eavesdropping."

"How was I supposed to know?"

"I assumed you were smart. My mistake." He didn't even crack a smirk as I scowled at him. "Let's just get you out of here before those guards wake up."

"Whatever happened to trying not to hurt people? Wait!" I cried a second too late, as Baltor put his hands on the cell bars. He jerked backwards, hissing in pain. "There's a magic barrier on the cell."

"You just love getting into trouble, don't you?" he sighed, shaking his left hand. The fabric of his glove looked burnt.

"I'm sorry, okay! Just get me out of here before someone sees you."

At that, he smirked. "Excuse me, what was that? It sounded like an apology."

I glared at him. "Baltor, this is not funny."

"Probably because I'm not the one that got caught," he muttered, the smirk fading as quickly as it had appeared. "The lock looks pretty standard. Do you have a hairpin or something?"

I let out an annoyed sigh. "Why not just go and get the keys?"

"Because I don't know where they are," he replied. "Now, I'd like to get out of here some time today, so… hairpin?"

Even though I was ticked off at him, I still yanked a pin from the back of my hair and tossed it through the bars of the cell. There was silence as he carefully grabbed the lock and started manipulating the pin in it. "So?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "So what?"

He sighed, sounding annoyed again. "_So_ how did you get caught?"

"The guards found me outside the vault. Varanda must have alerted them or something."

Baltor shook his head. "And you didn't fight back?"

"Well…"

"Bloom, eventually you _will_ have to fight."

"You think I had it in me to honestly hurt them? They're just doing their job!"

"And so are we," he replied, grunting slightly as he jammed the pin deeper into the lock. "God, this was easier with the Trix."

"Aren't you forgetting that they _betrayed_ you?" I asked, offended that he'd compared me to those three.

"At least they'd listen to orders!"

"At least I'm not a power-mad control freak, a lovesick manipulator, or just plain crazy."

He glanced up from the lock. "The verdict's still out on that last one."

"Well… at least I don't smear lots of tacky colored eye shadow under my eyes!"

That earned me a laugh. "That's very true. Now hang on, I just need to get the tumbler to move…"

I looked down at his hand, moving the pin in the keyhole. "Where did you learn to pick locks?"

He didn't look at me. "I learned it a long time ago from some… less than honest men."

"So, your best friends?" I asked sarcastically.

He cracked a small smile, but it was sad. "For lack of a better word, I suppose you could call them my friends. But like I said, it was a long time ago."

I could tell from the tone of his voice that the subject was no longer up for discussion. A second later, there was an audible _click_, as the lock fell to the floor and the door sprang open. "However," Baltor smirked as he held the hairpin out to me, "that doesn't mean I didn't learn anything useful from them."

I took the pin. "Thanks. For… helping me."

"Well, I'm not going to get too far on my own," Baltor replied, dropping something else into my hand. I looked down to find about five little green crystals.

"What're these?"

"It's a sleeping spell, contained in a crystal. Throw one with a burst of magic, and they're out for an hour. You're technically not hurting anyone, and we get out of here with what we need. Is that sufficient?" When I nodded, Baltor grinned. "Good. Now show me where the vault is."

* * *

"And you're sure you can't stay longer? There's that party in Spring…"

I rolled my eyes as Baltor smiled politely at Annabelle. Of all the luck, she had to be working this afternoon. I'd crashed the second Baltor and I had gotten back to Snowflake Inn. We (well… mostly Baltor) had managed to trick the security clearance on the vault, quickly accessed the Gift of Harmony, and gotten out before anyone could see us. I hate to admit it, but I'd felt pretty stupid watching Baltor do was I supposed to in half the time. _Without_ getting caught.

And speak of the devil, I was about ready to strangle him with the way he was handling Annabelle's flirtatious behavior. I missed the colder attitude he'd shown her the previous day. "I'm sure it'd be a night to remember… but unfortunately we can't stay."

"Yeah," I said pointedly, staring at him. "Where is it we're going next?"

"You'll find out soon enough," he replied, a smirk on his face. "And that reminds me – I need to go get something. Meet me out front when you're finished here." With a small wave to Annabelle, he headed for the doors.

She gave a flirty wave back as he walked outside, which was totally expected. What I didn't expect, however, was her smacking my wrist the minute Baltor was out of sight. "Just _what_ is your problem?"

"Ow!" I yelped and shook my wrist, trying to dull the pain. "Me? What's _your_ problem?"

She gave an overdramatic sigh. "Um, hello? I don't know if you're blind or something, but your friend is hotter than a Solarian heat wave. _How_ are you just sitting here?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You're serious? You just slapped me because the guy I'm with is… not bad looking?" I managed the last part, not having it in me to refer to Baltor as 'hot'.

Annabelle was shaking her head. "He's blond, his eyes are _gorgeous_, he's got the best body I've ever seen outside of the movies, and all I get is _'not bad looking'_?" She motioned to her own pixie-cut blond hair. "I don't care if his hair _is_ longer than mine; I'd still look at that face all day."

_If only you knew what his face really looked like,_ I thought.

"Really," she continued. "You have no idea what some girls would do for that."

"Your point is?"

She sighed again, her expression beyond annoyed. "I'm saying _make a move_! Gosh, are you really that slow?"

I tried to contain my laughter. "Oh trust me, he's… not my type."

Annabelle raised her eyebrows. "Oh really?" she asked, sliding the credit card Baltor had given her across the counter to me.

I tried to pull her hand along with the card. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She shrugged. "The way you look at him. It seems like… like you wouldn't mind being more than friends." Annabelle absently reached out to the bowl on the other side of her computer, grabbing an apple out of it. "I'm just saying," she continued, holding it out to me.

With a small eye roll, I took the fruit from her hand. "Yeah. Thanks for the advice."

She laughed as she grabbed another apple for herself. "Not like I have anything better to do around here," she said, taking a bite of it. I couldn't believe the thing hadn't chipped her teeth, with the chilly air here. "Anyway, good luck with your 'friend'. And if you really don't want him, give him my phone number."

"I'll… keep that in mind." With that, I turned and walked in the direction Baltor had gone. I momentarily stopped to look back at Annabelle, but she was already helping out a family that had come into the hotel.

"So what were you two talking about?" I nearly jumped as Baltor appeared from around the corner, falling into step next to me.

"It was… nothing important. She's sure an interesting girl."

"That she is," he agreed, glancing over his shoulder as though she was behind us. "I might have been wrong, but was she… giving you dating advice?"

I fought a blush. "What! No, she was just… talking about that club."

He smirked at me. "If you say so…"

I pointedly ignored the way he left the comment open. "I was serious back there. Where's out next stop?"

"Well… I suppose somewhere warm wouldn't be bad. And possibly where we can lay low for a few days before getting any more spells."

"Why's that?"

"Because," he replied, his breath coming out in a white mist. It was pretty cold, even in the hallway. "You're obviously going to need – at minimum – a little help if you want to make it through this. Despite what you said before, you obviously need it."

I glared at him from behind my bangs and held up the hand that held my apple. "I _will_ pelt you with this thing."

He responded with a smirk and effortlessly plucked the fruit out of my hands, taking a large bite from it as we walked out of the hotel.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"Why does it look like we just stepped into a giant jewelry store?" Everywhere I looked, there was something flashy or shiny or sparkly, like the entire realm was Stella's jewelry box. Even the road stripes were done in reflective paint. The effect was like being in the world's largest house of mirrors with its roof ripped off on a sunny day – not exactly pleasant.

Baltor chuckled. "Isis _is_ the planet of gemstones. Guess they decided to go with the whole jewelry thing."

I surveyed the 'downtown' area. Giant flashing neon signs in different bright colors competed for my attention, each one bigger and brighter than the last. All the buildings were made out of a white brick-like material that seemed to sparkle in the sun. The flowers and trees that sparsely dotted the sidewalks for decoration looked like they were made out of actual gemstones – and, I considered, it wasn't such a far leap to think that they might be. Every person I saw was thin and beautiful, and they all wore designer-looking clothes, perfect makeup, and at least one article of jewelry that flashed in the mid-afternoon sun – even the guys. It was like someone had scraped up all the best parts of the most extravagant places on Earth – Las Vegas, Hollywood, South Beach, even Disneyland – and dumped them in a blender, and _this_ was the result.

"This place looks like it'd be fun for a vacation, but could you imagine actually _living _here? I think I'd go insane from sugar shock. The people don't even look like regular _people_; they look like freaking models out of a catalogue."

"I agree," he said, already walking again. "Come on, we need to get going."

"So what's the game plan here?" I asked, jogging to catch up with him. For the millionth time, I wondered why he always insisted on walking so fast.

"First, we need to get a hotel room. Then _you_ should take a nap. It's going to be a long night."

"What are we doing?"

"You'll see." He stopped in front of a building, made of the same sparkly white bricks as all the rest, a little bigger and set apart from the others. Over the double door entryway was an enormous fake (or at least I _hoped_ it was fake) diamond, and lining the doorway were smaller diamond-like crystals. Loopy silver cursive lettering underneath the oversized jewel read _The Diamond Palace_.

"Did you have to pick somewhere so… _flashy_?" I asked, following him in through the doors. Like the outside, the inside of this hotel looked like a giant diamond mine. There were crystals in every conceivable place – hanging on the walls, dripping from the lights, even embedded into the floor. The staff was dressed all in white – pants and a polo shirt for the guys, super-short mini-dresses for the girls – and almost every single one of them was blond.

_Stella would love this place_, I found myself thinking, checking out the full-length mirrors propped up in random places, for no conceivable reason other than for people to preen. Unlike the Snowflake Inn, the all-white color scheme here made it feel light and fun and airy – probably from the giant picture windows overlooking the rest of the city, framed by flowy white chiffon curtains that puffed in the slight breeze. It even _smelled_ good here – like some kind of expensive perfume, sweet and flowery.

"Here." I looked up to see Baltor slapping a white key card into my hand. It was adorned with the same kind of loopy silver cursive on the door outside, imposed over a drawing of an oversized diamond ring also done in silver. "While you were checking out the décor, I got us a room."

"Thank you," I said softly, curling my hands around the card. Even after he'd saved me from that prison cell on Vallisto, I still had a hard time making those words come out of my mouth to Baltor.

He smirked, like he could read my mind. "Come on. You need sleep, and I need some time to work."

"I'm not a baby. I don't need an afternoon nap," I protested, as we got into the elevator. Even that followed the same decorating scheme – all mirrored, with silver buttons and an oversized fake diamond in the ceiling as a light bulb.

"After what happened on Vallisto, I don't think you're in any position to protest." I frowned. Despite the fact that I was technically in the right on Vallisto, I had to admit that he sort of had a point – no matter how much I hated it.

"So what are you going to do, while I'm sleeping?" I asked.

"Take care of some business. Really, Bloom, you should be thanking me. We're going to be out late tonight."

"Why don't _you_ need a nap, then?" The elevator opened, dropping us into a hallway with plush white carpeting and silver-painted walls that seemed to shimmer in the light. A discreet silver and gold sign said 5001 – 5014 and pointed down one hallway, while another said 5015 – 5030 and pointed the other way. Baltor headed down the first hallway, and I followed, since he was the one that made the reservation.

"Because I'm used to late nights. You, however, most likely are not. And even though you're not doing any heavy lifting this time, your job is still very important. I can't have you falling asleep." He stopped in front of room 5009 and swiped the key card.

"Do you even sleep?" I blurted out without thinking, as we stepped into the room.

A flicker of something passed through Baltor's eyes, but it was gone before I could put a name to it. "Sleep is overrated," he said finally.

Deciding not to try and push any further, I instead walked further into the room. It had the same overdone silver-white-and-fake-diamonds theme as the rest of the hotel, but compared to our room at the Snowflake Inn, it was much bigger and more luxurious. Poking my head into the bathroom, I checked out the glass-walled shower with six showerheads and sunken white Jacuzzi tub with a pile of thick fluffy white cotton towels sitting next to it. Yes, this place was definitely a step up from the Snowflake Inn. Briefly, I wondered how much staying here was costing us, and how Baltor was affording to pay for it – and for the Snowflake Inn, for that matter. Where did the money come from? (And did I even want to know?)

"I should be back in about two hours. You might want to freshen up a bit, too. And eat something – we won't be able to stop for food until much later."

"Anything else?" I asked, crossing back into the main room and bending down to open the mini-bar.

"Don't leave the room," he added, either missing my sarcasm or choosing to ignore it. (My money would be on the latter.)

"Can do. Have fun," I chirped sarcastically, grabbing an orange soda from the mini-bar and popping the tab.

After downing about half of the soda and a couple bags of chips, I found myself with a real predicament – what to do.

Unpacking would be pointless, since a) I barely had any clothes, and b) we were most likely going to be here for just one night. I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels, but there was nothing decent on except for a pay-per-view movie – which I couldn't pay for, since Baltor had the credit cards. And despite my boundless curiosity about Isis, a little voice in the back of my head said that not obeying Baltor's orders to stay in the room probably wouldn't be a good idea.

I stared at the enormous bed, made up all plush and fancily with thick white blankets and big fluffy pillows. It did look really tempting… But no. Just because he told me to take a nap did not mean I actually had to do it. If there was one thing I had to do, it was prove that he couldn't tell me what to do.

Still… it looked so soft… Maybe I'd just go lie down.

My body sank into the soft, pillowy mattress. Oh God, this was heaven. Way nicer than the one at the Snowflake Inn. I stifled a yawn. _Wow, I really am kind of tired… Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a second…_

* * *

"Rise and shine, princess. We've got work to do."

I yawned (rather ungracefully, if I do say) and sat up straight, stretching my arms above my head. Wow, I really _was_ tired. Stealing a glance out the window, I saw that the sky was getting dark already, although the city was by no means any less bright. In fact, the combination of the already-bright neon signs and the new addition of hundreds of blinking car lights seemed almost brighter than before, like they were trying to overcompensate for the lack of sun.

"Wow, I was out for a while," I remarked casually, getting up and walking over to the window. Pressing my fingertips against the glass, I studied the people down below – groups of friends going out for a night on the town, dancing and laughing and drinking the night away; or couples on dates, at romantic restaurants or movie theaters or even snuggled up in bed at home, just enjoying each other's company. Ordinary people, with regular lives, unaffected by any of the stealing, lying, and keeping secrets that had become my life.

For one fleeting moment, I wished I could be them.

And then I sighed, reminding myself why I had taken this deal. _Your parents, Bloom_. _Oritel and Miriam. This will help you find them._

And in the end, I knew that voice in my head was right. When it came down to it, there was nothing I wouldn't do for my parents.

"Yes, you were," Baltor said, breaking my train of thought (which was probably a good thing, considering where my thoughts were heading).

"Okay, so you've had your fun keeping me in the dark about tonight so far, but now I need to know. What are we doing?" I rifled through my suitcase, trying to figure out what to wear.

"Don't bother." Something black and white with frills was dropped onto my suitcase, and I picked it up cautiously, shaking it out to its full shape. It was some kind of dress… with an apron…

A maid's uniform?

"Hope it fits," he added, staring pointedly at me, as if waiting to see my reaction.

"_Why_ am I wearing this, exactly?" I asked, refusing to put it on until I had some answers.

"I can't be there to watch you all the time and make sure you're not screwing up, but at the same time, you've obviously proven you can't go it alone. So your job tonight is security detail."

"And the maid's uniform?"

"There's some kind of formal dinner at the palace tonight; you'll be sneaking in as one of the servants. Basically, you just have to keep an eye on things and make sure no one's alerted to my presence. If everything goes well, we can get in and out before they even start to serve dinner."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and instead headed back into the bathroom to put it on. "This thing feels almost indecent," I complained, tugging at the skirt to try and make it fall farther past my butt.

"Your Enchantix dress is skimpier than that," he said, and my eyebrows shot up to my hairline. Whether it was true or not (and the more I thought about it, the more I realized it probably _was_ true…) – how would Baltor know?

I decided not to think about that.

After a bit more tugging and pulling at the skirt, I eventually gave up and ran a comb through my hair, which was still black. It was funny how much I missed being a redhead, despite having cursed it growing up. Now, when I looked in the mirror, it took a second to remember it was _me_ that I was looking at. Yes, the black hair had to go.

I walked back out of the bathroom, blond as Stella. "Well?" I asked, posing a bit.

"Nice touch with the blond hair – you'll stand out less."

"It's better than Mitzi-black," I said, not willing to admit that when I'd first looked in the mirror with the new hair color, I'd had to swallow back tears, thinking about Stella. It had only been a few days since graduation, but it felt like months – probably because I had no idea when (if?) I'd ever get to see them again.

He raised one eyebrow. "Who?"

"A bitch from Earth who made my life a living hell growing up." Forcing myself not to think about the girls anymore, I slipped on a pair of comfortable black flats lying next to the bed and said, "So let's get this show on the road."

"My thoughts exactly." And then before I could even blink, we were standing in the courtyard behind the Isis Royal Palace.

"Um, a little warning next time, please?" I steadied myself against a nearby column, trying to calm my somersaulting stomach. Even after three years of living with Stella and her Solaria ring, I'd never gotten used to instant teleportation.

"It's almost seven o'clock. The dinner is scheduled for seven thirty, but the guests should be there earlier than that. If you want to blend in, now's the time to go." He gestured to a nondescript white door in the back of the building.

"How will I know when it's time to leave?"

"You'll know." Then before I could say another word, he teleported away.

I stared blankly at the spot where he'd just been for a minute, before rolling my eyes and heading towards the door.

* * *

Stifled a yawn for what felt like the hundredth time tonight, I did my five thousandth eye-scan sweep of the area – namely, the security guards. Everything looked fine, everyone was happy, and no one was even the slightest bit aware of the dark wizard in the library stealing spells. All was well. Which meant that now I had to go back to my _other _job of the night.

"Champagne?" I asked, brandishing my tray in front of a couple of well-dressed older women.

"Why yes, thank you," the first one said, taking a flute with her perfectly manicured nails. From the well-cut burgundy satin gown that highlighted her not-bad-for-an-old-woman figure and the impressive-without-being-tacky golden tiara adorned with rubies in her long blond (of course) hair, I deduced that this was the Queen of Isis. She certainly _looked_ a lot nicer than her daughter, although looks can be deceiving, as I knew all too well.

"Don't mind if I do," said the other, who also looked somewhat familiar. She was shorter than the first and somewhat on the plumper side, with brown hair that was pinned up on her head, wearing a more traditional-looking long-sleeved blue gown with a full skirt.

Neither of them had said thank you, but I knew from my experiences thus far that this was my cue to leave. Sure enough, after the second lady had taken a sip from her glass, the Queen of Isis started right back in on their conversation, like I wasn't even there. "I just hope we can make things right tonight. It was such a big misunderstanding, all those years ago, and it's high time he got over it, isn't it? After all, _we_ were able to forgive and forget."

Though I had more flutes left on my tray, I lingered as inconspicuously as possible, intrigued by their conversation. "Well, my son has always been stubborn, set in his mind," said the lady in the blue dress. "I do believe we might make some headway tonight. He's here, at least, and that's a tremendous amount of progress in and of itself."

I desperately wanted to hear more, but I was stretching things as is, eavesdropping so long. Instead, I finished circulating the room, passing out drinks, like I had been doing all night.

When my tray was empty again, I ducked into a little alcove I'd discovered earlier in the night, leaning against the wall and slipping out of the crazy-ass shoes that had been killing my feet all night. (Seriously – these things were like walking on stilts crossed with Chinese foot binding. I had no idea how the other girls moved so quickly in them, like they were barefoot; it had taken me no less than three – _three_ – spells to be able to walk in them without spilling anything.)

A flash of moving red caught my eye, and I looked up to see two figures disappearing down a hallway.

_Uh-oh_.

It could easily be harmless – the palace was enormous, and what were the chances that they were going to the library out of all the dozens of rooms in this place? But I knew that on the slight chance they _were_ headed to the library, Baltor would not be happy with me – _especially _if he knew that I saw them and didn't do anything about it.

Peeking my head out of the alcove, I scanned the room. Everyone looked happy and entertained, and there were plenty of maids circulating with trays of drinks. No one would notice my absence.

So, with that logic as reasoning, I murmured a quick invisibility spell and followed them.

Even though they'd had a substantial head start, I caught up in no time, making sure to keep a reasonable distance despite the invisibility spell. When they finally ducked into a room not far down the hallway from the ballroom – but far, far away from the library – I breathed a sigh of relief and started back towards the ballroom. With any luck, Baltor would be done soon, and then we could leave already. I was already fantasizing about diving back into that big fluffy bed and sleeping for hours and hours. (What was it about this new lifestyle that made me so tired all the time? I'd just had a nap less than a couple hours ago.)

Then I heard a gratingly familiar voice, followed by one I knew all too well, but had _never_ expected to find here.

_Could it be?_

Curiosity won out. I couldn't resist doubling back and taking a peek. And sure enough, it was.

_Sky_.

My heart nearly stopped at the sight. He was wearing some kind of formal blue suit-like thing, looking just as regal and handsome as ever. Oh God, how much I wished I could reveal myself and run over to him, bury my head in his chest and tell him everything.

But then there was the other voice.

_Diaspro_.

My eyes narrowed, and my hands curled into fists, nails nearly drawing blood from my palms. She was meticulously groomed, as always, in a sleeveless crimson red silk dress with a deep V-neck and a long tight skirt that seemed painted-on, nipping in at her waist so that it appeared about the size of a pin. A long gold necklace with a ruby pendant dangled into her cleavage, which was displayed far too much for such a formal event.

"Diaspro, I will say this again until you get it through your head that I mean what I said. The _only_ reason I am here tonight is because of my parents. That is _all_. I have not forgiven you, and I never _will_ forgive you. You crossed a line with that love potion, and I would quite happily never have anything to do with you again if it was up to me." My heart warmed at his words.

"Oh Sky, you don't really mean that, do you?" Diaspro cooed, wrapping her arms around his neck. I grit my teeth. "I know what I did was wrong, but can't you ever find it in your heart to forgive me? This alliance would be so beneficial to both our planets."

"_The alliance_ would be between your parents and mine. It has nothing to do with us being together, or even tolerating each other. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the party."

She grabbed his wrist. "What's the hurry, Sky? Are you meeting someone later? Your precious little Alfea girlfriend?"

"That is none of your business." He yanked free of her grip.

"Where is she now, Sky? I thought she would be here with you tonight. After all, she's graduated now, and has nothing better to do than follow you around the realms like a little puppy dog."

"Bloom is doing some traveling right now," he said, shooting her a nasty look.

"Alone?" Diaspro arched one perfect eyebrow. "Is there trouble in paradise?"

"She never asked for company, and I thought it would be best to let her have her space." A flicker of doubt flashed in his eyes, which didn't go unnoticed by Diaspro.

"When is she coming back?" Silence. "You don't know, do you? How do you know she's not going to meet someone else and run away with him, while you're at home, pining over her like a monk?"

"That's enough!" he exclaimed. "I trust her. If she wants her space, I'll let her have it. I'm not _that kind_ of boyfriend, and I never will be."

"I know you're not, Sky." She took advantage of his mood to practically glue herself against him. "But you deserve better than that."

"Oh, and I suppose you mean yourself?"

She placed one finger to his lips. "What happened to us, Sky? Why can't we just go back to the way things were? We were so happy then."

"Diaspro, I–"

"Is it so hard to believe that I still love you?" She reached one hand up to cup his cheek. "I'm _here_, Sky. I have always been here. And I always will be. As long as I live, I will never stop loving you."

And then she reached up and kissed him.

The door, which had been slightly ajar before, allowing me to eavesdrop silently, banged open and then slammed shut with a gust of wind. I looked down to see my palms spread, the way they always did when I did a spell. That's when I realized the wind had come from me – produced without thinking in my anger.

"Who's there?" Diaspro cried, detaching herself from Sky – _my_ Sky. "Whoever you are, reveal yourself!"

Heart pounding in my ears, I felt the familiar tingle that meant my spell was wearing off. Crap! How the hell was I going to get out of this?

Though I hated telepathic communication and was loath to admit I needed help from Baltor, I saw no other options at this point. There was no way I could outrun the security guards, and using any more magic would alert them to my presence.

_Help! I'm in trouble! Get me out of here!_ I sent.

The time it took for him to reply felt like years, although in reality it was probably less than a minute.

_What did you do now, Bloom?_

_ No time to explain. Just get me out of here!_

_ Where are you?_

"You there! What are you doing in this wing? Servants are not allowed in here." Crap! Security guards! "Were you listening to private conversations of the princess's?"

"Guards, arrest her!" Diaspro exclaimed.

_Damn you, Baltor! _How was I going to explain my way out of this?

Then before I knew it, the floor was dropping out from underneath my feet, and I was tumbling through the air, without a clue as to where I would land. And for once, I welcomed the dizzying sensations, because if nothing else, it meant I was free.

But though I tried to ignore it, something was telling me that I might be wishing I was back at Diaspro's mercy when I caught up to Baltor again.

_Goddamn it, why do I keep screwing everything up?_

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Meh. Not the best ending, I know, but by that point I just wanted to get this posted already.**

**So, thoughts? How was it? Did you like the description of Isis? Are you guys ready to strangle us after the Sky/Diaspro kiss and then the lack of resolution that followed it?**

**No promises on when the next chapter will be up, but I can say that they're going to Tides next. (Yes, I'm sure you're all thinking "well it's about time they got to a Winx girl's realm!")**

**Catch you on the flip side!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"So do you plan on telling me what happened back on Isis, or are you going to just mope around here all day?"

I glanced up at Baltor, a scowl on my face. "For the five millionth time, I'm fine."

After the incident at the Isis Royal Palace, Baltor wasted no time in going back to the hotel and checking out (even though it had been around two in the morning, and there was a hideously high fee to leave at that time). We'd gone back to Magix, where Baltor was stashing all of the spell books we'd (okay, _he'd_) collected. Since then, the two of us had settled into an uneasy silence, except for the odd small talk or Baltor trying to find out what I'd done wrong… again.

And for the five millionth time, he shrugged it off. "Fine," he said, turning back to whatever spell book he'd been looking at.

My eyes narrowed at him. "It's not like you would even care, anyway," I muttered under my breath, hoping he wouldn't hear me.

He did. "Really," he said, not looking up at me. "Then why would I ask?"

"An attempt to make me feel even worse?"

"What did you screw up this time?"

I fisted my hand, wanting so badly to give him a right hook and knock him off his feet, ruining the way his perfect body looked leaning against the rock table while he flipped though the book. But instead, I let it drop. "It wasn't my fault, I'll have you know."

"Hmm… I'm sure."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Baltor looked up at me, his face set in annoyance. "It _means_ that we've only been to two planets so far, and somehow you've managed to screw both of them up. We're already behind schedule, and the last thing I need is a bunch of armed guards showing up at our next location."

"Which I still don't _know_," I snapped.

For a moment I wondered if I'd said the wrong thing. But after a moment, the slight rage on Baltor's face dissipated, leaving the slightly annoyed look again. "I'm not telling because I'm worried you'll mess it up. Even more than you usually do," he added, the smallest of smirks gracing his lips. "You don't need to over-think these things; just follow your gut. You have yet to realize that." When I didn't respond, he sighed. "At our next stop, you have an assignment so simple even _you_ can't screw it up."

"And that is?"

In response, he grinned and waved his hand in the air. It took me a moment to recognize it as a teleportation spell, and like always, I got it a moment too late. Before I could speak we were already falling through space.

When I hit the ground, I could smell seawater. The air was laced with humidity, and with the sun beating down I immediately wished I'd worn something with short sleeves. But besides the crashing of waves, it was silent. "Hang on…" I said, looking around and seeing a stone castle in the distance. "This is Tides, isn't it?"

"Well, aren't you observant," Baltor remarked dryly, dusting off his jacket sleeve.

"You're kidding, right? You had control over this place for the better part of a year, but you couldn't memorize _any _spells?"

"I memorized plenty," he snapped back, looking mildly annoyed. He'd been giving me that look a lot lately. "But Tides has one of the most advanced spell archives next to the schools in Magix. I'd like to see you try it, but again, you still don't trust me."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Why should I trust you?"

"Besides the fact that I got you out of the Isis Royal Palace and broke you out of jail on Vallisto?" I didn't respond, and a smirk crossed his face. "Maybe you should take a look around. It might give you another reason."

I raised an eyebrow, giving a glance around the area. I hadn't paid much attention to where we landed (it was usually in an alleyway or something), but looking around now, I realized we were standing on a column in the middle the Sea of Andros. To be more specific – _the _column.

My gaze fell to Baltor, whose smirk had widened. "I seem to remember saving your life here."

"My friends would've gotten to me eventually," I said finally, though my heart was only halfway in it.

"Of course. After about eight minutes, but I'm sure that doesn't matter."

I looked around again, like I expected to find some physical proof of what had happened here. "You never did tell me why you did it."

"I told you; I don't like easy victories."

"And then you blinded Layla," I snapped. "You hurt her when she was just trying to stand up for her planet. You didn't let her fight, and you didn't even care. Wouldn't that be the definition of an easy victory? Why not let her fight? Why hurt her?"

_Why didn't you hurt _me_?_

Baltor wasn't smiling anymore. His face was cold like the water. Something in the back of my mind told me I'd probably crossed a line, but I was too fired up to care. We stood there for a moment, glaring at each other, just like when we'd first met.

"The King and Queen of Tides are in Magix for a Royal Council meeting," Baltor finally spoke. "I think it's something involving sorting out the remainder of the planets' treasures since I'm 'gone'. Your friend is the only major threat in that castle. Keep her busy in the city for maybe three hours; frankly, you look like you could use the break. Can you do that?"

Ignoring the question. I wasn't surprised. "The security won't be a problem?"

He huffed. "I think I can handle it."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh good. I was worried for a second there."

Baltor's lip quirked. "I guess I failed to notice the weather report today – moody with a good chance of sarcasm."

"Isn't that usually you?"

To my surprise, he laughed a little. "Are you going or not?"

"Three hours?"

He nodded. "Three hours."

"See you then."

* * *

"Okay, you were right. Those street performers were _epic_."

From next to me, Layla laughed. "I know. The one with the curly hair – Jamison? I had the biggest crush on him when I was fourteen."

"You did not!"

Layla and I laughed as we walked through the doors to the palace. She'd been more than happy to see me turn up at the palace, claiming I remembered those crystal caverns she'd mentioned at graduation and was hoping we could go together for an afternoon. (I gave myself major props for actually _remembering_ what she'd said at all.) And just like Baltor had predicted, it wasn't a big deal leaving the palace. After looking at the caverns, we'd gone to the square in the main city, watching some of the local performers. Thankfully she'd loaned me a pair of capris and a blue tank top so I didn't roast.

As much as I didn't want to admit it, Baltor had been right about me needing a break. It was nice spending time with one of my friends – especially since Layla and I didn't get the chance to hang out alone very often.

She grinned. "I was young. So how's the realm-hopping?"

I shrugged. "It's okay."

"Been anywhere interesting?"

"…Not really. I went to Vallisto; didn't stay long, though."

"Seen anyone else? Sky, perhaps?" Layla asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

At the mention of Sky's name, my chest tightened, a strange mixture of sadness and anger washing over me. However, I tried to let it slide. "Not yet. Hopefully I can see him soon."

She nodded as we turned into a side hallway, our conversation falling. I figured it was a good time to send a little mental-message.

_We're back at the palace. Where are we meeting?_

_ What? You're back? I'm not done yet._

I lost my balance and almost tripped on a rug. Thankfully, Layla didn't seem to notice. _You what?_ I yelled in my head. _You said three hours!_

_ Security was a bit of a challenge. They buffed up since I was last here_.

_And you didn't anticipate that?_

_ I don't need a reminder. Just keep her distracted._

"You okay Bloom?" Layla asked, snapping me out of my mental conversation.

"Y-yeah," I finally replied. "Lost in thought."

She nodded, glancing around the hall. "That's strange… there are usually guards positioned around here, since the treasure vault's down the hallway."

I gulped. "Maybe they're on break?"

At that moment, a large bang sounded from further down the hall. Layla's eyes widened, and I swore under my breath.

And Baltor said _I_ always blew the cover.

"Something's not right here," she said, setting down her shoulder bag. "Come on, Bloom."

"Wait!" I tried to stop her, but she started walking with a fierce determination. "Shouldn't we let the guards handle this?"

"What guards?" she asked. "Isn't this a little suspicious?"

"Well… I don't know. I don't think it's such a big deal." _Get out of there!_ I yelled mentally.

_In a few minutes, _the reply came back, short and annoyed.

"Layla, come on." We were almost to the door of the vault. There were no guards in sight.

"One minute," Layla insisted, reaching out and jiggling the doorknob. It was jammed. "I knew it," she muttered, her grip tightening as she started rattling harder. "Something's wrong."

_…What is that?_

I gave an annoyed sigh, which could be perceived at both Layla and Baltor. _That would be our cover, shattering into tiny little pieces._

_ Well, stop her then!_

_ She's my best friend!_

"Help me out here, Bloom," Layla said. I could hear the cracking of wood – she was close to breaking the door in.

"Bloom!"Baltor snapped. I couldn't tell if the voice was in my head or on the other side of the door.

And before I could think, I stuck my hand out towards Layla. "_Ansommnus Appositus!_" A moment later, her hand stilled and she fell to the ground.

The door burst open and Baltor stalked out, his eyes fixed on me. Everything changed when he saw Layla crash to the ground.

He opened his mouth, but I'd already darted past him, kneeling next to Layla. I heard him come up from behind me, but I didn't acknowledge him. "Crap," I muttered. "What did I do?"

"A very good question," I heard him say. He leaned over me, his eyes fixed on Layla. "Does she have a pulse?"

I snapped my head up to look at him, eyes narrowed. "Of course she does! That was a sleeping spell, you moron! Shouldn't you know that?"

Surprisingly, he didn't take the bait of my obvious attempt at an argument. Instead, he dropped down next to me, carefully taking her hand and placing two fingers on the inside of her wrist, like he was taking her pulse. "Hmm… a powerful spell. I'm honestly impressed."

I wrapped my arms around myself. Guilt was settling in the pit of my stomach like a heavy stone. "I don't care. Can we just put her back in her room and get out of here?"

Baltor gave a small laugh. "Are you nuts? Even if she didn't _see_ me, she still knew someone was in the vault. They'll find the missing spell books in a matter of hours." He set her wrist down. "I'm going to have to alter her memories."

"What?"

"Don't worry, it won't–"

Before he could finish, I shot my arm forward, preventing him from touching her. "You are _not_ altering her anything!"

"You want to be found out?" Baltor snapped.

I ignored his question. "You're not laying a hand on her again!"

He gave an irritable sigh. "You can watch me do the spell. Hell, I'll show you how to do the spell, and _you_ can perform it on her. Just so long as someone does it."

"You're offering to teach me the spell?"

Baltor leaned in very close to me, his scent enveloping me. I'd never really noticed that he had a specific smell – like leather and foreign spices. "I know you don't trust me. I get it. But Bloom, for the love of God, if you want to get _anywhere_ with this, you're going to have to at least _try_ to. You can hate my guts for the rest of your life for all I care, but you need to remember I'm risking myself here too. We need each other to get what we want."

His speech caught me a little off guard. "I know that."

Baltor raised an eyebrow. "Do you really? I trust you, Bloom; it's your turn to trust me."

At that moment, I took into account the position I was in – leaning across Baltor's body, practically in his lap. I pushed myself back, resting on my knees, as I glanced at Layla – still asleep on the floor, her face peaceful. Closing my eyes, I exhaled deeply, my bangs fluttering on my forehead. Then slowly I stood up, my arms crossed over my chest. "Fine."

He glanced up at me. "You're sure?"

"No. But I suppose I'll just have to trust you."

* * *

"I'd have thought you'd be in a better mood," Baltor remarked, raising the wineglass to his lips.

I was slumped in a leather armchair. We'd decided to stay in Tides for the night, checking into one of the fancier hotels near the palace. Our room was a pretty large suite, with two separate bedrooms and bathrooms, along with the living room. On the table in the center of the room were five wine bottles Baltor had taken from the cellar at the palace (don't ask me why; I was surprised myself). One of the bottles was open, and Baltor was on his second glass. "Why would I be?" I asked, running my hand along the edge of the chair.

"Oh, I don't know – you finally stepped up your game, your little friend is safe, her mind completely healthy, and these are some of the finest wines in the entire magical dimension."

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm a little upset that I had to erase my best friend's memories."

"It was for the best."

"I get that," I said. "But that doesn't always absolve the guilt."

"Of course it doesn't," Baltor said, raising an eyebrow at me. "But eventually you'll realize that it was for the best. What else could you have done?" he asked, setting his half-empty glass down. "Layla's a strong girl; she wouldn't have let any of that go if her memories hadn't been altered. She would've kept looking for the truth until we were both caught. You have to remember, you aren't exactly on the good side anymore. Though at least," he continued absently, picking up the glass again, "you'll still have something good to go back to after this."

I stared at him from the chair, my eyes narrowing a little. "How do you do that?"

He took a sip of wine. "Do what?"

"How do you be so… _you_? All serious and knowledgeable and sarcastic at the same time?"

Baltor chuckled a little. "Years of practice, princess." He turned his back to me for a moment, and when he turned back, there was another glass in his hand. He walked over and held it out to me. "Here."

I stared at the liquid. "I don't drink. I'm too young. Where I'm from, you have to be twenty-one."

"Well, you're not on Earth anymore," he reminded me. "Just take it. A toast."

I sighed, but did as I was told, swirling the liquid around in the glass. "What're we toasting to?"

He smiled a little. "To starting over."

I couldn't help but laugh. "You know, three weeks ago, the last thing I ever expected was to be sitting in a hotel room with you, toasting wine."

Baltor laughed too. "You've got to love irony."

I shook my head. But I still reached out and clinked my glass with his.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Since I'm in a benevolent mood, I'll throw you all a little treat - those wine bottles Baltor stole from the palace will be coming back...**

**Au revoir, mes amis!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"You know," Baltor said, looking up from the spell book he was absently leafing through, "if I didn't know any better, I'd have said you were under a spell or something."

That remark earned him a book thrown at his head, which he chuckled and dodged easily. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked indignantly.

"That book contained some of the most powerful wind spells in the magical dimension. Did you _really_ have to throw it at me?" I glared at him, but he seemed unperturbed. "You do know the bedspread's on fire, right?"

_That_ caught my attention. I looked down to see that he was right; little flames were licking at the patterned silk, making their way towards me. With a startled yelp of surprise, I scrambled backwards, desperately trying to remember the fire-extinguishing spell I'd memorized after an… interesting incident sophomore year when I was trying to make brownies for the girls and the Alfea kitchen oven broke. (Word of warning to anyone with fire or fire-based powers: learn that spell. You never know when it might come in handy…)

All the while, Baltor just stared at me, shaking his head. "Really, Bloom, I thought you'd gotten better at this." I finally extinguished the flames, staring angrily at the blackened fabric. The fire-sword spell I'd been playing with earlier was incredibly cool (and not the first to tempt me… although so far, I'd been able to resist all urges), but apparently I'd forgotten to put it out before throwing that book at Baltor. Sighing heavily, I flopped onto my stomach, closing my eyes and resting my forehead against the un-ruined part of the bedspread.

"Oh, cheer up. Tonight will be fun." I propped my head up in my hands, my chin resting on my open palms, and stared at him. He was still calmly leafing through that book, like the entire episode with the fire had never happened.

"How so?" I asked out of curiosity, bringing my knees up behind me.

"Well that would spoil the surprise, now wouldn't it?" A smirk that looked dangerously close to an actual smile spread across his lips at my reaction, which was less truly mad than it would have been a week ago. "I will tell you one thing, though – it requires new clothes. So get out of here." He tossed something slim and rectangular in my direction, which skidded across what remained of the bedspread towards me.

I picked it up and stared at it, turning it around in my fingers a couple times, like I couldn't believe my eyes at what I was seeing. "You're giving _me_ a credit card?"

"I really would rather not accompany you on this particular shopping trip, so yes, I'm giving you a credit card. That particular one happens to not have a limit, so you can get whatever your little heart desires."

I refrained from asking the question that was on the tip of my tongue (_Where did these credit cards come from?_), and instead asked, "What am I looking for?"

"A dress."

"…That's not very specific."

Baltor sighed. "We're not quite in ball gown territory, but you don't want something like a sundress either. Just pick out something nice. Tonight is all about blending in with the locals."

"Whatever you say." I swung my legs off the side of the bed and headed towards the door of the hotel room. As my hand hovered above the doorknob, I paused, something poking at the back of my mind. "You're not getting off that easily. What did you mean earlier?"

"Hmm?"

"About me being under a spell."

"Oh, that." He waved it off like my question was a fly to be swatted. "It's just that your attitude has improved remarkably since Tides. You're no longer that much of a liability; in fact – dare I say it – you're almost sort of helpful now."

"Shut up," I laughed, aiming a throw pillow at his head. I took great satisfaction in the fact that this time, my aim was more accurate, but all that earned me was an eye roll. "You wouldn't have gotten half this far without me and we both know it. Need I remind you who saved your butt in the Hall of the Clouds on Cumulus?"

He scowled good-naturedly. "That was a lucky break," he insisted, turning back to his book. "Now go. There's not that much time until nightfall, and our way in tonight depends heavily on timing."

"I'm going, I'm going." I opened the door and started to leave, but turned back for a second, my eyes fell on the enormous bed. The long indentation in the blankets from where my body had been was still partially there, but… the parts I'd carelessly burned were gone.

The silk was completely flawless again.

My eyes flickered briefly back to Baltor, still reading that book. He showed no signs of having moved from that position, but then again, he was a lot better at non-verbal spells than I was. I briefly wondered why he would bother cleaning up after my mistake, then pushed the door open further and headed out.

I made my way down the hall towards the elevator bank, his last comment replaying itself in my mind. Things definitely had changed since Tides. I'd slowly come to terms with the reality of just what I'd gotten myself into, and – dare _I_ say it – I was actually sort of starting to get good at this. (I went back and forth on whether that was a good thing or not.)

Most importantly, though, Baltor and I had developed something of a rhythm, a dynamic between us. Now, when we traded veiled insults and put-downs, it was more playful than anything else – a nod to our former adversarial relationship. I don't know if I'd quite call it a "friendship", but it was something. And it was in no small part due to that newfound ability to work together that we had made it through five realms in the past seven days.

We were getting closer and closer to being able to confront the Ancestresses with every passing day, and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't wondered what would happen then. If all went according to plan, I would be able to return to my friends and Sky – my former life – with no one ever being the wiser. But there were glaring holes in this plan, not the least of which being that my parents (assuming I was able to find them) would surely want to know how I'd managed to free them on my own.

I sighed, shaking my head to clear my thoughts as I stepped outside and onto the bustling streets of Popularis, our current destination. Enough heavy thinking. I had some shopping to do.

* * *

The room was conspicuously empty when I returned. If it had been a week ago, I would've starting panicking, certain that Baltor had ditched me and gone off to wreak havoc on the magical dimension with the spells I'd helped him steal. But now, I just threw my large tissue-paper-filled shopping bag towards the direction of the bed and headed for the shower.

When I emerged twenty minutes later, lemon-scented steam pouring out from the tiny room, a plush white towel wrapped around my body and another one tied in my wet hair, there was still no one else there. Now I was a little on edge, but refused to show it. Instead, I used a quick-drying spell on my hair, which had been brown since Cumulus. Daringly, I decided to turn it back to my natural red for tonight, although I did tinge it darker – more of an auburn color, rather than the flame-bright shade I'd been born with.

Glancing towards the door, I stripped off the towels and quickly zipped into my gorgeous new dress. The pair of matching black heels I'd bought to go with it lay by the dresser, but I made no move to put them on; there was no way I was subjecting my feet to any more torture than was necessary. Instead, I dug through the mounds of tissue paper to find the little makeup kit that had fallen to the bottom, and walked back into the bathroom, where the steam had finally cleared.

As I rimmed my eyes with liquid black eyeliner, my thoughts, of course, turned back to where Baltor was. I had never known him to disappear like this before, and without him telling me where to go and what to do… well, the phrase "all dressed up with nowhere to go" came to mind.

I studied my face in the mirror, sticking out my bottom lip a bit. Leaning in closely towards my reflection, I thickened the line a bit towards the outer corner, giving it more of a smoky effect.

All of a sudden, I felt a tingling on the back of my neck, like I was being watched. A familiar smoky, spicy scent replaced the freshness of the hotel's lemon shower gel. Something that felt a whole lot like relief flooded through my veins as I straightened up to see Baltor's reflection next to me in the mirror.

"I don't remember authorizing the purchase of makeup," he drawled, his eyes flicking up and down my body. That tingly feeling spread through the rest of me, and I bit my lip.

Plucking the mascara from the cute little traveling case the kit had come with, I opened my eyes wide, lacquering my lashes with the black paint. "You did say I could get whatever my little heart desired. Quote verbatim."

He seemed amused. "That I did."

"Where did you go?" I asked, slicking on my new rose-pink lip gloss.

"You're not the only one who needed a change of attire for tonight, darling." It was just then that I noticed he wasn't wearing his usual weird old-fashioned clothes. They had been replaced by a pair of dark-rinse jeans with frayed hems and a long-sleeved black pinstriped button-down shirt.

I nearly dropped the tube of lip gloss into the sink. He looked… almost hot.

"I brought presents," he continued, thankfully not noticing my sweating palms. "And look, they match your dress perfectly."

I took the earrings out of his hands and started slipping them in. They were long silver dangly earrings dripping black, blue, and clear crystals, and actually looked amazing with my dress – an empire-waist strapless number with a bodice covered in hundreds of glittering blue and black sequins, a blue belt under the bust, and a short black skirt that had big blue wave-like tropical-style flowers printed along the bottom half, accented with more blue sequins. Twisting this way and that, I studied my reflection, then decided that such beautiful earrings called for wearing my hair up. "Where did you steal these from?" I joked, starting to pile my hair on top of my head and wishing I had some hairspray or something.

As I turned, I caught a glimpse of Baltor's face in the mirror. It was a steely, silent mask. "I didn't steal those," he said somewhat coldly, turning around and walking out of the bathroom. Somehow, I was left with the distinct impression that I'd just taken a step backwards; there was no trace of our earlier teasing tone.

Finishing my hair, I added a little glitter powder and a spritz of perfume, then headed back out into the main room, picking up the dreaded heels and starting to strap them on. The cool crystals of the earrings brushed against my cheek, and I wondered why he'd gotten so defensive about them. Sure, they were pretty, but it didn't really make any sense.

"Okay, wise guy, I'm all dressed and ready, and wearing your stupid earrings." His eyes flickered, but he said nothing. "_Now_ will you tell me where we're going?"

He smirked, as if to say _I thought you'd never ask_. "While you were out shopping, did you hear anything about a nightclub named The Vault?" I shook my head. "It's bigger than some houses, built almost as an add-on wing to the Royal Palace as a sweet sixteen present to Princess Rachel, who is something of a party animal. Extremely exclusive, with a guest list vetted by the princess herself every night; unless you know someone, it's impossible to get in. Tonight, even more so – it's Princess Rachel's eighteenth birthday party. And guess who's on the guest list?" Seemingly from out of nowhere, he produced two black cards with perfect, looping silver calligraphy.

"Sounds fun… but why are we _really_ going?"

"The Vault was built directly over Popularis's spell library. Guess the king figured that no one would think to look for their realm's trove of magical treasures underneath his daughter's party playground. It's not a half bad idea, I have to admit."

I resisted the urge to ask him how he'd found out about all this, or managed to get us on the list, and instead asked, "So is it going to be like Isis? I keep an eye on things upstairs, and alert you if there's any problems?" There was a tiny pang in my chest when I thought about what happened on Isis, but I shoved it away – maybe too easily.

"More or less. With so many more people, things could be either easier or harder; I won't know until we get there."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" I asked, standing up and grabbing the little black satin clutch I'd also bought on impulse this afternoon. "Let's go paint the town red."

* * *

It seemed impossible to know how long we'd been at The Vault. It could have been seconds or hours; time seemed to have lost all meaning here, in this decadent, paradise-like playground for the young and beautiful. Everywhere you looked, there were people dancing, laughing, talking, downing colorful drinks, or disappearing behind silver beaded curtains to private rooms where only God knows what happened. The noise level was deafening, but somehow all the people managed their conversations easily, like this was an everyday occurrence for them, instead of the craziest thing that they had ever seen (the way it was for yours truly).

I'd been to some pretty impressive parties in my three years in the magical dimension (even if they didn't always end very well…), and seen some very beautiful places. But just a few moments inside The Vault was enough to make me realize that I hadn't seen _anything_ yet.

Perhaps the first tip-off that I was vastly out of my league of experience here should have been the tall black double doors at the front that swung open to reveal escalators leading up to the club itself, which was three stories tall. Of course, the upper levels were nothing more than balconies flanking the central dance floor on the main level, doorways leading to several of the aforementioned private rooms. The real fun, it seemed, was on the bottom.

The walls were a dark black that seemed to sparkle in the colored strobe lights, with black marble columns giving it more of a royal feel, as befitting a club built specifically for the princess. Three bars (that I could see) were made of the same black marble, with curvy silver bar stools that looked like art. A high ceiling was draped with black fabric swags and hanging strands of silver beads, an enormous, glittering antique crystal chandelier lofted up at the very top. Plush black leather booths lined the shimmering silver dance floor, with low-slung cocktail tables that held silver ice buckets with champagne bottles sweating inside them. Tucked back in a corner was a shadowy room shielded by heavily beaded curtains and guarded by men in black – obviously the VIP room.

I clutched my cranberry juice and seltzer and surveyed the dance floor from above on the second floor, trying to pinpoint any burly men dressed in black (i.e.: security detail). Baltor had been right about one thing – almost the minute we'd entered the club, I'd lost him in the crush of people. His last words to me before we'd left the hotel replayed themselves through my mind.

"_Remember," he'd said, "it'll be touch and go for a while, so you really need to focus on blending in. Get a drink – a non-alcoholic one, if you'd prefer," he'd added when I'd reminded him about my feelings towards alcohol, "and try to look as normal as possible. It can't hurt to dance a little." Here I'd shot him a dirty look, but he'd continued as if I hadn't done a thing. "Alert me if there's anything strange going on with security. And keep an eye on Princess Rachel. She might look like she'd have cotton candy for brains, but she's actually quite smart. Underestimating her could be dangerous."_

I sighed and took a sip of my drink, leaning against the railing. The only security I could see seemed pretty focused on the VIP room, and Princess Rachel wasn't even out on the main floor. Once again, it would seem that I had been stuck with the pointless job.

The beaded curtains to the VIP room parted, revealing a tall, skinny brunette with porcelain skin and storm-gray eyes wearing a tight silver halter mini-dress with a tiered, ruffled skirt and strappy silver stilettos. Half of her stick-straight hair was pulled up and twisted back behind her, topped with a sparkling diamond tiara that matched the enormous chandelier earrings dripping from her earlobes, and she was holding a glass of champagne in her perfectly manicured nails. As I watched, two other girls appeared behind her, forming something of a V-formation – the brunette at the center, of course. The crowd parted like the Red Sea as the three of them made their way to the dance floor.

"Let's give it up for the girl of the night, the belle of the birthday ball, your beloved Princess Rachel!" Loud cheering from everyone ensued, as the DJ cut the music and shone a spotlight on the girl in the silver dress. Her two appendages were bouncing and clapping as enthusiastically as anyone else, but the girl in the middle – Princess Rachel, I would assume – just regarded the entire thing with a sort of cool indifference, like it was her _right_ to have people scream and clap for her.

The music started up again a moment later, and an extremely hot guy with short dark hair, tanned skin, and seriously ripped muscles pulled Princess Rachel against him. I watched her start to dance with him, her slinky hips swiveling against his, as her friends pulled two other hot guys out of the crowd and started dancing with them. Leaning against the railing, I swallowed another sip of my drink and continued scanning the rest of the crowd.

Suddenly, a flash of moving black caught my eye. I looked down to see a security guard seem to come from nowhere, pushing briskly through the crowd towards Princess Rachel. She stopped grinding against the Taylor Lautner look-alike she was with and stared him down angrily, but as he whispered something in his ear, her expression changed completely. I focused intently on the two of them, my blood running cold as she gave him what looked like an order. Immediately, he turned on his heel and started retracing his steps at the same brisk pace, heading for a back corner of the cavernous lower level. Two other security guards followed him, as inconspicuously as possible.

All at once, every sense was alert and tingling. This could not be good.

_Alert, alert! I think you've been discovered! Princess Rachel just sent a security team somewhere_, I sent, praying that our telepathy would still work in a place this noisy and crowded. Heart pounding, I watched the three men advance towards whatever doorway there was back there that I couldn't see, cursing the amount of space between them and me.

When several heartbeats had passed and there was no answer, I did something incredibly risky – I cast an invisibility spell on myself and teleported to the place in the back.

I landed with a tiny bit of a drop, catching my breath quickly and silently (I hoped). There was no way of knowing whether I was in the right place, but there were no security guards, and the pulsing beat of the music was more diluted than out on the dance floor, so I had a feeling I was good. No sign of Baltor, though, and no reply, even though my head was clearer in here.

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I was determined to fix this, somehow. After all the progress I'd made, there was no way I was screwing this up.

Closing my eyes, I tried something I'd never done before – searching out Baltor through his Dragon Fire. That natural little tingle in the back of my mind was always there whenever we were in the same general vicinity, and it didn't take too much effort to focus intently on it, drawing it out to use sort of like a tracker. Something like a blueprint of the club formed itself inside my mind, other people appearing as green shapes, flickering in and out of my concentration. I pushed harder, searching out the cause of the tingle, ignoring almost everything else until the green shapes finally flickered completely out of the image. Almost at once, a blur of moving red appeared, making its way from the sub-basement levels up towards the main floor – right at the door where I was waiting.

I breathed a sigh of relief, my concentration on the blueprint figure dropping instantly. So relieved was I that I hadn't managed to screw this up, I didn't notice that the tingle was still strongly there, even though I'd lost the tracker thingie. When I did, I only had a split second to panic before I found myself in an incredibly compromising position.

"What in the _world_ are you doing here?" The voice in my ear was low and quietly furious, but I was far more focused on the fact that there was a body pressed up tightly against my own, pinning me against the dark wall. A familiar scent tickled my nostrils, and my eyes widened.

I opened my mouth to speak, but a second later found it otherwise occupied.

Kissing Baltor.

My eyes just about popped out of my head when his lips descended onto mine, and my first instinct was to push him away – _hard_. But my current position made it extremely difficult to do that; he was almost completely pressed against me, my back against the wall, arms pinned by my sides.

What's more, after a couple seconds, my traitorous body betrayed me, responding to his kiss. Almost of their own accord, my arms slid up around his neck, pulling him closer; eyes sliding closed as his tongue traced the seam of my lips, gasping slightly, giving him the advantage he needed to press forward. He tasted like peppermint and some kind of alcohol (whiskey? Scotch?). A soft moan escaped my throat, unbidden, as liquid fire raced through my veins, setting alight every nerve ending in my body.

Back on Earth, I had been something of a "late bloomer" (no pun intended). As such, I had made it through almost eighteen years of life only ever having kissed one other boy besides Sky (a guy from Gardenia, named Andy, if you must know). The point being, I didn't exactly have a lot of previous experiences to compare this to. And even if I wanted to, it just didn't work. Kissing Sky or Andy was _nothing_ like this.

When he finally let go, I teetered slightly on the heels that had been bugging me all night, my balance completely shot. I felt like I was drunk, delirious with the after-effects of the kiss. My chest heaved with effort as I sucked air into my oxygen-deprived lungs.

Blinking rapidly, my eyes readjusted to the darkness of the club. "_What_ was _that_?" I stammered out, clutching my stomach and leaning the other arm against the wall to steady myself.

"The real question is, what the hell were you doing here?" he spat. I couldn't help but notice that he seemed completely unaffected by the soul-searing kiss we had just shared. The thought felt like a punch in the stomach.

"Security guards… no response… worried…" Geez, this was kind of ridiculous. How could that kiss have affected me so much, and yet he was able to stand there, cool as a cucumber? And for that matter, why the hell had he kissed me in the first place? "Now it's your turn to answer. _What_ was that about?"

He waved me off. "Oh, that. Your little 'plan' to keep me from being discovered actually put us at more risk of discovery than if you had done nothing, so I had to think fast. And the first rule of camouflage is that it's always easiest to hide in plain sight."

"…Oh." So he hadn't kissed me because he wanted to kiss me; he'd done it to create a distraction. Somehow, that made me feel oddly deflated, like a balloon several days after the party.

But wait! I should be _glad_ that it was all just an act. Hello, I had a boyfriend waiting for me? And Baltor was technically the enemy?

Yet there was no denying it – I had liked that kiss. A whole lot.

And I wanted to kiss him again.

Wait – I _did_?

"Come on," he said brusquely, already turning to make his way back through the crowd. "Now's the perfect time to leave, while they're distracted."

Silently, I followed him through the packed dance floor. The crowd was so thick I had to keep my eye on him at all times not to get lost, and even then we were still separated a couple times, which did make it easier to keep from having to make chitchat.

I couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, I'd managed to undo a week's worth of progress in this one night. It was illogical, really – he'd gotten what we needed from the royal spell library, and we hadn't been caught. So why did I feel like I'd just taken several steps backwards?

We made it out of the club and into a dark alley a couple streets down without exchanging another word, where Baltor teleported us back to the hotel, also silently. Immediately after we arrived, he made a beeline for the room's mini-bar, yanking out an expensive-looking bottle of whiskey. "You want something?" he half-asked, not even bothering to look at me. It sounded more like an automatic response than anything said out of genuine interest.

"You told me to stay out of the mini-fridge, remember?"

He gave a hollow, bitter laugh. "I think in this case, it would be better to drink and forget."

My head snapped up. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?" I'd meant for it to sound pissed off (you know, since this _was_ his fault), but it ended up trailing off, like I was… upset.

Which of course I wasn't.

"Just… nothing. Forget I said anything."

"Fine."

"Fine." He turned and stalked towards the bedroom, pausing at the door and turning back over his shoulder as if to say something. But then apparently he thought better of it, and turned back and disappeared into the bedroom, the door slamming behind him.

Sighing, I resigned myself to having to sleep on the couch bed for the night, then slowly made my way to the bathroom to change. As I unzipped my gorgeous dress, I let my mind drift back to the kiss (_why_ did I keep going back to that?).

This was getting into dangerous territory here. In a few weeks at the most, we would be able to confront the Ancestresses, and I would have gotten what I needed from this… unholy alliance. Then Baltor would disappear from my life, and I would be free to pretend that this month or so of my life had never happened – it would be nothing more than a blip on my radar.

But though I didn't want to admit it, something in the back of my mind didn't _want_ to forget it.

I pulled out the clothes I had worn earlier – jeans and a dark blue shirt with an owl on it. I was in deep trouble, and though I had given myself a list of things I'd sworn not to do while I was traveling with Baltor, I'd already broken a few of them (hurting my friends, harming the innocent, _kissing him_), so how much could one more hurt?

When I came out of the bathroom, Baltor was still barricaded in the other room. A glimmer of something caught my eye, and I spotted the credit card he had given me earlier resting on the small coffee table. Without thinking twice, I grabbed it and said an old teleportation spell I'd learned freshman year at Alfea.

And disappeared in a clap of displaced air.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****...Satisfied? ****Yes, after all this time, we _finally_ got the ball rolling on the Sparxshipping! About time, huh? Did the kiss live up to your expectations? ;-)**

**That's all for now, folks. Stay pretty!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Considering that I showed up at her door at two in the morning with no invitation or explanation, I'd expected Flora to be at least a little suspicious of me. Maybe it was out of the goodness of her heart (or more likely, the whole getting woken up in the middle of the night thing), but she didn't question me and let me in with relatively little talking. I ended up getting a few hours' sleep on a couch in her room, which was surprisingly comfortable.

When I woke up, sunlight was streaming in through the window behind me, casting shadows throughout the room. Flora's bed was empty, the clock on her nightstand telling me it was almost noon. I yawned, stretching my arms above my head as a new thought occurred to me.

Baltor was going to kill me.

I shook my head, trying to get rid of that thought. What did I care? He was probably so hungover (I mean really, who could drink that much without getting alcohol poisoning? I really had to look more into these inhuman qualities of his) that he didn't even notice I was gone.

But then again, if he _did_ manage to realize that I was nowhere in sight, what would he do? He couldn't exactly start questioning people on Popularis, and it wasn't as though I had a cell phone anymore…

My thoughts were interrupted as the door to the room burst open and I heard a very excited voice chirping, "Bloom! Bloom! Bloom!" over and over again. A second later, a large mass hopped onto the couch and gave me a very big, very tight hug.

"Oof!" I struggled to catch my breath. "Hey Rose."

If you ever thought Flora's little sister was a quiet, sweet little thing like her name implied, you're gravely mistaken. She was a ball of energy waiting to be unleashed, just like every other seven-year-old in the universe. She didn't stop squeezing me as she began to talk. "When I came downstairs this morning Flora told me you were here, so I ate really fast so I could come up and say hi. I didn't even stop to change out of my PJ's. Wow, you slept for a long time. When did you get here?"

"I got here… pretty late, kiddo. And I hate to be a bubble-buster, but you're kind of killing me here."

From the doorway, I heard a chuckle. "She's right, Rose," the voice of my old roommate chided. "Keep doing that and she'll turn blue."

There was a pause. "I like blue."

Flora laughed again. "Rose!"

The younger girl huffed but finally let me go, leaning back against the couch. I smiled a little and ruffled her hair. "Thanks, Ro. I'm happy to see you too."

She beamed at me. "Are you staying here today?" Rose asked, her eyes hopeful.

I felt a very odd twinge in my chest. "I… uh, I'm not sure…"

Thankfully, Flora came to my rescue. "What I think Bloom is trying to say is that before we can do anything, she needs some food. And since we don't have anything, I think she and I are going to go out to lunch."

"Can I come?"

"Not this time, sweetie. Bloom and I haven't talked in a long time; we want to catch up. But I'll make you a deal – while we're out, you can go next door and play with Heather and Brittany."

Rose's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Really. But you have to go get dressed first."

Apparently these were Rose's best friends, because a few seconds later she was gone, rushing into her room. I smiled as she left. "It's nice that some things never change."

Flora nodded. "Yes it is."

I watched as Flora opened the doors to her closet and started poking around for something. "So," I said after a moment, "this lunch is an interrogation, isn't it?"

My best friend laughed. "If that's what you want to call it. It's certainly going to involve some questions. You gave me a really nice scare last night. You're lucky that my parents are in the city right now for the debates."

That's right; Flora's parents were head council members here on Limphea. She'd told me it was a big part of why Alfea had considered her. "I do have an explanation. It's just… a very long and complicated one."

She giggled a little, a sign that told me she was more concerned than upset right now. "Oh my Bloom, what've you done now?" she asked, turning back to me with a decent-sized box in her hands. She set it down on the couch next to me and started to open it up. "These are some of your clothes that ended up in my dresser. I was going to mail them, but since you're here now…"

"Thanks Flora." I smiled a little, reaching in and pulling out a bright orange bohemian dress. Shuddering, I tossed it aside, continuing to look through the box. "And not just for the clothes–"

"It's no trouble. You looked like a train wreck when you showed up. Did something happen with Sky?"

I don't know why the idea surprised me so much. "Why do you say that?"

"Well… you looked pretty confused, like sophomore year when Icy put that spell on Sky in Red Fountain and we thought he was going to die. I was curious; it seemed like you had a pretty conflicted heart." When she saw my face pale, she crossed her arms over her chest. "All right Bloom, out with it. What happened?"

I sighed, leaning my head back against the wall. It was now or never. "Well, there's really no good place to start…"

"Well, where's _a_ place to start?"

I shut my eyes tightly. "Baltor. He's… kind of alive."

* * *

Amount of time it took me to explain my story (from final battle to kiss): an hour and a half.

Amount of time it _would_ have taken me if we hadn't gone to lunch after all, didn't drop Rose off, and were in a private place: half an hour.

Number of interruptions from Rose/the waiter at the restaurant: seven.

Number of interruptions from Flora: one.

Number of times Flora passed out from shock: zero (thank goodness).

Number of times Flora _almost_ passed out: one (when I told her Baltor kissed me).

Yeah. So overall, the whole thing didn't go nearly as bad as I'd imagined, but it was in no way smooth sailing. But it _did_ feel really good to finally get everything off my chest. The guilt had been eating me alive for the past month or so. And though I could tell Flora was more than shocked, she still listened to me.

So there we were, sitting in a booth in a little café in the main city with two now-cold cups of tea between us. I twiddled my thumbs nervously as I watched Flora sitting there quietly, looking a little dizzy. You could've cut the tension with a knife.

"Please say something," I finally begged. She looked at me in surprise, as though she'd forgotten I was there. "I don't care if you're mad, or if you yell at me. I'll take anything. Just don't act like I'm invisible."

Flora sighed, taking a sip of tea. "I'm not mad Bloom. I'm… surprised, I guess. I don't think anyone imagined _this_ was how you were spending your sightseeing adventure."

"I know."

"And I just talked to Layla a few days ago. She said you'd come by for a visit and the two of you had a great day. Whatever you did to her memories was good."

"I know."

"And no one's picked up on what you've taken."

"I know."

There was a pause. "Who else knows?"

"Just you. Not even the Trix are involved. Just me and him."

Flora nodded. "And this… kiss, it happened last night?"

"Yeah. At The Vault."

"And then what happened?"

"After he barricaded himself in the bedroom with half the contents of the mini-bar? I came here. I couldn't take the aura of that room, much less _his_. And just when we were finally starting to get into a good rhythm…"

Flora eyed me as I picked up my tea. "Bloom… can I ask you a question and get an honest answer?"

"Of course."

"Do you like Baltor?"

I choked on my tea, almost spilling it down the orange dress (it was the only thing that fit; the rest of the clothes Flora had were from a few years ago, so I'd outgrown them all). "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you like him? As in, the reason you felt terrible last night was because he kissed you as a cover-up, and not because he liked you too?"

"What? No! I do _not_ like Baltor." I paused. "And even if I did, it's not like he likes me back."

"Really?"

I shook my head. "Flora, come on. Have you forgotten who we're talking about here? The man who was devoted to killing us for most of last year?"

She smiled, probably for the first time in the whole conversation. "Look who's talking, sweetie."

"But…" I trailed off, realizing she was right. I let my head fall to the table, making a small banging noise. "Dear God, did I really do it? Did I really fall for the least auspicious bachelor in the whole magical dimension?"

"Auspicious?"

"It means favorable. Baltor told…" I stopped dead. "Flo, what have I done?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure you've fallen in love. And from what you've told me, I'm pretty sure he likes you back."

I gave her a look. "You're kidding, right? There is no way a person like that would fall for a person like me. It's the ironic plotline of every supermarket romance novel in existence."

"Well then, when this is over you can write a book about it."

I rolled my eyes, deciding to ignore her rare sarcastic comment. "Okay, I'll play along. So he might like me. How do I find out?"

"Well, you could be like Stella with all her nosing around and trying to be discreet–" she laughed "or… you could just ask him."

"That's not something you can just 'ask'. At least, not Baltor."

"Why not?"

"Because… he's Baltor! And it's just going to make everything worse."

"You never know until you try. Look Bloom, I'm not saying go and yell it out. Wait for a good moment, and then just do it. I mean, as far as choices go he's certainly not my first, but from what you've told me… it seems like he might be better than we all thought."

"I don't know… What if this is just some weird crush?"

"Then that's all it is."

It was interesting how I could love Flora's logic and hate it at the same time. But either way it was comforting. "Thanks, Flora."

"It's what friends do," she smiled, reaching across the table and squeezing my hand.

I smiled too, taking another sip of my drink. "Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to tell Baltor when he finds out I'm gone."

Flora's eyes grazed over my head. "Well… now would be a good time to start thinking. Considering he just walked in."

"What?" I snapped my head around to the doorway. To my absolute shock, I saw Baltor step into the café, still dressed in the same clothes he'd worm to the club the previous night. I glanced around at the people sitting in the nearby tables, but none of them looked at him twice. "He's using that disguise spell." I turned back to Flora. "But how can you see him?"

"The anti-illusion spell Palladium showed us," my friend replied easily. "I've had it on since you showed up last night."

I smirked. "Thanks for trusting me."

"It wasn't you, it was whatever trouble you'd gotten into."

"Excuse me – Bloom, right?" Baltor said as he approached, unaware that Flora could see him for he really was. "Sorry to interrupt, but we met a few weeks ago on Vallisto. I was wondering if you had a minute?"

"It's no trouble," Flora said smoothly, setting down her drink. "I was just leaving."

I bit my lip. "Rose will be upset that I left without saying goodbye."

Flora shrugged. "She'll get over it. And if not, she can call. And if you need me, you can call too."

A smile crossed my face. "Thanks, Flora."

"Anytime," she replied, getting up and straightening her skirt. Her gaze fell to Baltor. "And you… If you even _think_ about double-crossing Bloom, you will have eleven very ticked off fairies and heroes coming after you who could care less if you live or die. Got it?"

Baltor's jaw dropped, and I couldn't help but smile as Flora gave him a rare smirk and patted his shoulder. "See you both later. Good luck." With that, she walked out the door and disappeared down the street.

"She could see me, couldn't she?" Baltor asked, sliding into the opposite side of the booth.

"Yeah," I replied quietly. A fluttery feeling of nervousness settled in the pit of my stomach. "How did you find me?"

"The way I always do," he replied as though it was obvious. "I used the Dragon Fire connection."

"Oh." I didn't know the connection was strong enough to reach across planets; and I'd used the credit card he'd given me to pay for lunch. But I didn't say anything. "When did you know I was gone?"

"Maybe about three in the morning."

"…Oh."

Baltor nodded, and we fell into an uneasy silence, broken only once by the waiter asking if we wanted anything to eat or drink (we both said no, but he did refill my cup with hot tea). Finally, after biting off half my fingernails, I knew I had to speak.

"I'm sorry."

I looked at Baltor in shock. "What?"

He sighed. "I _said_ I'm sorry about last night."

I was surprised my eyeballs didn't pop out of my head. I'm pretty sure that 'I'm sorry' was at the top of my 'things I never thought I'd ever hear Baltor say' list. More than anything I wanted to know _what_ exactly he was sorry for, but from the look on his face I knew asking would be a big mistake. "I am too," I said finally. "I shouldn't have left. I just… needed space."

Baltor nodded, his eyes slowly turning to look out the window. "Will she tell anyone?"

Despite everything, I couldn't help but sigh a little. "Flora won't do anything. She trusts my judgment."

A familiar smirk grazed his lips. "Precisely what I'm worried about."

In an automatic response, I grabbed my napkin and threw it at him. "She won't. Trust me," I added when I saw his skeptical look.

"Fine," he said, still sounding a bit wary. He then reached across the table and grabbed my glass of tea, taking a long drink.

I realized he was trying to get on my nerves so I'd yell at him. Over the last few weeks, I'd come to recognize the routine. And I had a feeling it was an attempt to try and put the last few events into the past, a sign that they shouldn't be brought up again.

I didn't really feel like arguing with that.

"You're absolutely disgusting!" I said instead, reaching across the table and whacking his shoulder. "I was _drinking _out of that!"

"And it tastes delicious."

"You're impossible."

"At least I don't look like a giant ball of sunlight. A very old-fashioned, hippie-looking ball of sunlight, I might add."

I eyed my dress. "It was the only thing that fit. And look who's talking about being old-fashioned, wise guy."

He raised an eyebrow. "You do know the sleeve has a giant hole in it, right?"

"What?" I looked down and sure enough, there was a decent-sized hole in the arm of the dress. "How long has that been there?"

"I saw it when I first walked it."

"Well then why didn't you say something?"

He rolled his eyes, but I saw the smirk on his face; he was enjoying bantering with me again. "There's no way to win an argument like that, so I'm just going to let it go."

"Well, I promise I won't wear this to the next realm. Speaking of which…" I trailed off, letting a smirk cross my lips. "What's our next stop?"

Baltor grinned at me and stood up, offering a hand down to help me up. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

I rolled my eyes, but still took his hand and stood, taking a moment to leave a tip on the table. The nervousness in my stomach had completely melted away.

Getting back to where things were before was bound to be at least a little hard, but now I had a feeling it wasn't going to be nearly as bad as I'd originally thought. Just so long as nothing like that kiss ever happened again.

And it wasn't like I wanted it to happen again anyways.

_ "Well, I'm pretty sure you've fallen in love. And from what you've told me, I'm pretty sure he likes you back."_

Flora's voice echoed in my head, like the annoying, constant buzz of a fly's wings, reminding me that only moments ago, I'd been convinced that I _did_ want it to happen again – that I might be falling in love with perhaps the last person I'd have ever imagined myself with.

I shook my head, banishing the thought from my mind. The visit with Flora had helped clear my head a bit, and unburdening the secret had definitely been good for my guilty conscience, but that was all. No matter how good her advice sounded when it had been just me and her in our little bubble, there was no way I'd ever actually explore the idea of the two of us as a couple. That was just too insane.

No, it was much smarter (and safer) to leave the last few days in the past, where they so obviously belonged. Whatever crazy feelings had been stirred up were obviously just a result of too much isolation and more than a little anxiety.

…Right?

There was just no way they could be real.

Because that would open up a whole other can of worms.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Champagne, miss?" Startled out of my train of thought – currently, how the royal family of Delora ever got any privacy, since almost every wall I'd seen was made of semi-frosted glass or floor-to-ceiling windows – I looked up to see a diminutive woman in a black-and-white maid's uniform not unlike the one I'd worn on Isis, brandishing a silver tray of champagne flutes in my face. For a moment, all I could think about was how much those stupid shoes on Isis had killed my feet, and felt an overpowering wave of sympathy towards this woman I didn't even know.

But then, after a tense and awkward moment, I remembered where I was now, and who I was supposed to be. "Thank you," I said somewhat overly graciously – my one concession to knowing what it was like to be a have-not surrounded by the bright and glittering have's – delicately plucking a glass. I had no intention of actually drinking more than a tiny sip for politeness' sake, but I also knew that declining would draw more attention to me than it was worth. And drawing attention to myself was the last thing I wanted to do.

In the past few weeks, I had learned quite a lot of little tidbits like this – how to fake your way into a high society ball (it's all about the confidence; act like you belong, and no one else will question it), how to mingle unobtrusively and become part of a group while leaving no impression on anyone's mind, the best ways to silently and secretly disappear into private places and make away with valuable things that no one would know were gone until you're light-years away. In fact, I could probably write a book when this was all over – _High-Class Cat Burglary for Dummies_. The thought made me laugh.

It was easier, I had found, to think about what I was doing that way – as if it was happening to someone else, some other girl's life I was merely watching through a glass wall. That wasn't _me_ sneaking into the library and appropriating piles of spell books with the power for unimaginable things; no, it was a facsimile, devoid of a conscience that would scream and shout at her for daring to take things that she held no claim to.

Thinking of things that way had also helped my interactions with Baltor. If the person aiding and abetting him wasn't actually me, then it was easier for me to lock my emotions behind that glass wall, and interact with him only perfunctorily. Because there were emotions – strong, almost violently conflicting ones – and I had no idea what to do about them.

No matter how hard we tried to deny it, everything had changed since Popularis. Gone was the easy, familiar camaraderie, the sarcastic mocking meant with no real harm; in its place was a strange sort of stilted imitation, comparable to before like a cheap knockoff to a real designer handbag. (Oh come on – I lived with Stella for three years. _Some_ of it was bound to rub off!)

Head spinning, I took an uncharacteristic gulp of champagne, feeling the bubbles tickle and fizz on my tongue. My head suddenly felt too heavy for my neck to support, and I shifted the exquisite diamond pendant that hung from my neck, as if the dizziness was something I could physically remedy. The cool stone felt satisfying against my suddenly hot skin, as I recalled exactly how I had come to be wearing such a beautiful thing…

_I applied a final coat of clear lip gloss and stared at my reflection in the mirror, happy with what I saw. Blue eyes rimmed with smoky dark eyeliner and volumes of mascara, skin glowing and naturally clear, lips filled in a matte deep rose pink and topped with clear gloss for shine. My hair (in the auburn shade I now preferred to wear it – the closest I could get to my natural red while still in disguise) was curled, pushed back from my forehead with a slim gray headband, and tied into a shoulder-dusting side ponytail._

_ This was the fun part, I reflected, dusting some powder over my cheeks and forehead to prevent shine later in the night; the dressing up, putting on makeup, twirling in a pretty dress and heels and imagining what the night _could_ be like. _Before reality sets in, and I have to conceal stacks of priceless spell books in my handbag while making polite dinner conversation.

Stop,_ I mentally chastised myself, flicking a stray hair off my shoulder and spritzing my wrists and neck with perfume. _Regretting things isn't going to undo them. Just stop thinking and get on with tonight's job. _With that mentality, I shrugged off the complimentary fluffy white hotel robe and slipped into tonight's gorgeous creation – silvery-gray satin, strapless with an empire waist that had crystal beading trim, and a floor-length full skirt that still managed to be long and slinky and hug my hips while retaining its formal fullness. It fit like it had been custom-made (which it had – for some other girl)._

_ I reached back to pull up the zipper, then groaned when my fingers brushed against gaping, trailing ribbons. Because, of course, the dress wasn't sensual enough (it fit like a freaking glove); no, the dressmaker just _had_ to give it a corset-style lace-up back. I twisted my arms, trying in vain to tie the ribbons in some semblance of bows, then finally heaved a giant sigh and dropped my arms, wracking my brains for a spell (because how else was I going to get it tied?)._

_ Unexpectedly, I felt the back of the dress tighten, as slim satin ribbons were pulled taut and tied. Gentle fingertips brushed against the exposed skin of my back, and I instinctively stiffened, back arching until my spine was ramrod-straight._

_ In any other scenario, the silent arrival of another person in my room while I was half dressed (which could only mean bad news) would have instigated screaming, kicking, and plenty of Dragon Fire energy aimed at said unlucky soul. But as I inhaled, I caught a whiff of the smoky, spicy scent that had become as familiar to me as the scent of smoke and wood (Mike) or dirt and flowers (Vanessa), and my heartbeat relaxed. There was no need to panic or transform; I wasn't in any physical danger._

_ My body, however, stayed exactly as it was._

_ "Baltor." I tried my best to keep my voice even, to keep at bay the overwhelming torrent of emotions that threatened to tumble out after weeks of distance both physical and emotional. "What are you doing?"_

_ "Helping you get ready, Princess," he answered lightly – in measured, controlled tones that matched my own, I couldn't help but notice. The fact that he was putting up a front now too didn't make me feel any better, although I wasn't quite sure it should have either._

_ It was the sensation of the cool stone against my skin that startled me out of my thoughts. I looked down to see a stunning diamond pendant resting on my sternum, where I was positive there had not been one a minute ago. I reached up to touch it, as if it maybe wasn't real._

_ "Don't do that – you'll smudge it." Only then did I realize that a) the necklace had to have gotten on me somehow, and b) Baltor was touching me again. Tiny tingles raced down my spine from the place at the back of my neck where his fingers were, and I sucked in a breath of air._

_ This was not supposed to be happening._

_ The clasp lay flat against my skin, but his hand was still there. I suddenly found that I was having trouble breathing. Glancing at the mirror, I caught a glimpse of our reflection – his hand anchoring my neck, my head fitting into the curve of his shoulder like a puzzle piece, our faces perilously close. All I had to do was turn my head the slightest amount and…_

_ It was that thought – the sudden, uncontrollable longing for a repeat of what had happened on Popularis – that finally made me see reason. Trying hard not to make it look like I was running away (when in fact that was exactly what I was doing), I gently extricated myself from his grip and made my way over to the other corner of the room, where my shoes waited. Wincing in anticipation of the pain I'd be feeling later tonight when I took them off, I started to fasten the buckles, but not before managing a quick, inconspicuous look backwards._

_ To see a flicker of something that looked a lot like regret pass through his eyes._

I was thoroughly unnerved at the memory, and quickly swallowed the rest of my champagne, trying to chase it away. All that did, though, was make the world start to spin in front of my eyes. That coupled with the torture devices also known as stiletto heels made even standing precarious. Thankful for an excuse to sit down, I quickly made my way towards a small room set off from the main ballroom, where I knew there were couches and chairs for exactly this sort of predicament.

I'd moved maybe seven steps when the orchestra struck up a waltz. Another two steps and then there was someone in front of me. "Excuse me, miss, but a beautiful young lady such as yourself should not be sitting out a dance."

I was all ready to dismiss whatever poor sap had come to ask me to dance – it happened way more often that I would've been truly comfortable with – until I looked closely and saw something strange. His eyes, which were a bright green, suddenly appeared to be gold. Another blink, and they were back to green.

My would-be dance partner grinned a very familiar grin. "Come on, Bloom. It's an offer you can't turn down." He took my hand in his, the disguise vanishing (in my eyes, at least).

"I… you… why did you do that?"

"Entertainment," Baltor smirked. It was one of the (now rare) reminders of how simple this used to be.

"Your idea of entertainment sucks," I muttered under my breath. He gave a dark chuckle, and I crossed my arms over my chest. "What do you want?"

"Didn't I just say I wanted a dance?"

My eyes narrowed. "What's the catch?"

He shook his head, smirking lightly. "Catch? Why does there have to be a catch?"

"There's always a catch with you," I said, my voice suddenly soft.

His smirk disappeared completely, and I mentally cursed myself. Why had I done that? Why did I say things like that when I knew now how he would react?

I opened my mouth to apologize (something I'd been doing a lot more of recently), but before I could, two gloved fingers pressed against my lips. I looked up at Baltor – despite my three-inch heels, I still came up short next to him – and saw that he looked almost… amused. "No catch this time," he said softly, extending his hand. "Just… humor me for a few minutes."

"I… I can't dance."

"That didn't seem to be a problem at the Millenium Ball on Eraklyon."

I arched an eyebrow. "And how do you know that? Were you spying on me?"

He smirked again. "Maybe."

So distracted was I at the thought of Baltor looking in on my personal moments with Sky over the last year, I didn't even realize I was dancing until I was spinning around the ballroom in Baltor's arms – when, of course, it was far too late to do anything about it without causing a scene and drawing attention to us. Then I couldn't _help_ but notice every little detail – how close we were together, the heat of his hand on my waist, the way my cheeks were starting to flush from his proximity…

He leaned down to whisper in my ear. "See? You dance fine."

I made a point to step on his foot then, giggling as he hissed in pain. Letting my proper posture fall slightly, I removed my hand from his and connected them loosely around his neck. "Yes, apparently I can."

"I blame you for the blisters I will undoubtedly have tomorrow."

I sighed, leaning forward and resting my head in the hollow of his collarbone. A little part of me couldn't help but notice that it fit perfectly. "You're a wimp."

If my sudden proximity alarmed him, he didn't show it, wrapping his arms around my waist to keep me close. "For once in your life, darling, just shut up."

I have no idea why, but I listened. For the next minute or so I stayed locked in his arms, letting my arms wind tighter around his neck. Lazily, I fiddled with the lapel of his burgundy jacket (though I doubt it looked like that to anyone else). _Where did you get this old thing anyway?_ I asked in my head, technically following the 'no speaking' rule.

I felt his chest rumble in slight laughter._ It's a long story, if you're truly interested._

_That's your excuse every time I want to know about your past._

_ Have you ever considered that I say that because I don't like to share?_

My eyes flicked up to his face. He was staring out into space, looking deeply lost in thought. I felt the weight of the necklace on my neck and wondered for a moment if this had anything to do with it.

Before I could catch myself, I reached a hand up and tucked a few stray hairs behind his ear. Apparently, it was enough to bring him back from wherever he'd gone. His eyes lowered to me, and I felt my heart stop.

The notes from the orchestra came to a dramatic close. He was so close I could feel his breath on my face, lips descending downward… He was going to kiss me. He was going to kiss me and I was going to let him…

But when our lips were only centimeters apart, one of the ribbons lacing up the back of my dress got caught in some woman's hair. I was yanked back from Baltor, losing my footing and almost tripping over my own skirt; if it weren't for his hands on my waist, I would've fallen to the floor. The other woman gave an apologetic smile and helped untangle me, before applauding politely at the orchestra. Trying to slip back into cover, I did the same.

"Did you get it?" I asked quietly under the applause, leaning in so only Baltor could hear me. Our hands were still interlocked.

Again, I saw that split-second of disappointment, before it was back to a cool detachedness. "Yes."

"Then can we leave?"

I would've sworn I saw him frown, except that it vanished – like every real display of emotion I'd ever seen from him – too quickly for me to be sure. "As you wish." He dropped my hand and started cutting a path through the crowds of people.

I watched him go for a moment, dumbstruck, before my brain caught up and I started politely hurrying after him, the wide skirts of my dress swishing. My heart beat rapidly at a pace that surely couldn't be normal, and although the room was fully air-conditioned, my skin burned.

This was insane. I wasn't sure how much more of this up-and-down, hot-and-cold routine I could take.

I didn't normally drink, but right now, I had a feeling I could use one.

* * *

Over the course of the next hour and a half, a few things became apparent. First off, Baltor seemed to think the solution to all problems lies in alcohol. Second, after finishing off two of the remaining three wine bottles from Tides, it was obvious that despite his slightly inhuman ability to go without sleep and food, Baltor could still feel the effects of alcohol. Even though he insisted that he was fine, I could tell by the look in his eyes he was far from sober. And though I felt like I had things under control, I had a feeling that I was too.

So what were we to do in our hour of less than… reasonable judgment?

"And suddenly, the duck drops down from a hole in the ceiling and lands on Icy's head."

Share incriminating stories about the Trix, of course.

Baltor was sitting (okay, more like draped – how could he do that even when he was drunk?) on one of the leather armchairs of the suite's sitting room, a half-full wineglass in his hand. "If there's one thing I wish the six of you would've done, it's bring that duck back."

I shrugged. "We lost track of him."

He shook his head, taking another long swig of wine. "That's a shame." I giggled, and his gaze fell to me. It may have been the alcohol, but it seemed like there was something lingering behind those gold eyes.

"What?"

"You're an easily amused drunk."

Baltor smirked. "Look who's talking. Whatever happened to 'I'm too young to drink'?"

My eyes narrowed. "Do you blame me?"

I watched the smirk slide off his face. After a moment, he stood and walked over to the table, re-filling his glass. The room was eerily quiet.

Then: "If you think this is all my fault, you're sorely mistaken."

My eyebrows shot up to my hairline at the tone of his voice. "Excuse me?"

Before I could even blink, Baltor was moving towards me at the pace of a man with a serious plan, his eyes narrowed slightly. Something in that gaze scared me a bit, and automatically I started backing up until my back met a wall. Even then he still kept walking until he was practically pressed against me. It was oddly reminiscent of Popularis – besides our blood alcohol levels, of course.

"I _said_," Baltor repeated, his voice dangerously low, "if you think this entire situation is my fault, you're sorely mistaken."

I gulped. "S-situation?"

"Don't be coy. We both know exactly what you were thinking. It comes with the whole reading minds deal."

The thought of Baltor reading _those_ thoughts made my cheeks redden. "The one thing I can't understand," he continued, leaning his face closer to mine, "is why it's you. Of every person in this universe, why did it _have_ to be you?"

We both knew the meaning of that sentence. "There were the Trix–"

"Please," he cut me off. "You're joking, right?"

I shrugged, trying to smile. "Worth a try."

Baltor shook his head. "I tried everything possible to get you out of my mind. And nothing ever worked. So you know what I've decided? I'm not putting up with it anymore."

I was going to ask what he meant, but about three seconds later I got my answer.

Namely, that he kissed me.

The second his lips met mine, every sense in my body started tingling, like the Dragon Fire was singing "Hallelujah" or something. It was not at all unpleasant, and I closed my eyes, my body melting into his arms as I opened my mouth to him, deepening the kiss.

It was like I had never been kissed before. Certainly, none of my experiences with Sky or Andy had ever come close to producing this intense euphoria, this all-consuming passion that now flooded my veins. When mixed with the vast quantities of alcohol I had consumed over the course of the night, it made for a heady sensation.

Like Popularis all over again… except at the same time, not. There was a new sort of urgency to this kiss, a deep-rooted desire behind it that suggested things would not end the same way – unless I made him stop, like a good girl.

"What… what are you doing?" I managed to get out, sucking great gulps of air into my lungs in a fruitless effort to clear my head. His lips moved down toward my neck, planting butterfly kisses along my exposed collarbone that sent shivers down my spine.

"What I've tried to keep myself from doing for a long time now," was the only answer I got. I opened my mouth to say more, but at the same time he found a particularly sensitive spot, and I let out what sounded suspiciously like a loud moan, my back arching into his hands and head thrown back against the wall.

I could almost feel him smirk against my skin. "Don't fight it, love," he whispered in my ear, pulling gently on the roots of my hair. With that, he brought his lips back to mine for another bone-melting kiss.

My head was spinning, in equal parts from the wine and from the kissing. And though in some vague part of the back of my mind, I had a feeling I would regret this later, right now the rest of me just wanted to do exactly as he said.

Screw being a good girl.

Bracing my back against the wall, I folded my legs around his waist, cupping his face with my hands, never breaking the kiss. I felt his chest rumble with laughter as he wrapped his strong arms around my abdomen, supporting me completely, carrying me into the bedroom.

"You're heavier than you look."

"Shut up and kiss me."

My beautiful gray dress, which earlier tonight I couldn't wait to put on, now felt unbearably substantial; too many layers of fabric between Baltor and I. He must've had the same idea, because he reached behind my back and started tugging impatiently at the ribbons, pulling it down over my hips to collapse in a puddle of satin and tulle on the floor that would undoubtedly wrinkle. But I didn't care, reaching my hands up over his chest to slide them under that burgundy jacket, which quickly joined my dress on the floor, along with his shirt.

I placed my hands on his flat stomach, tracing his fine abdominal muscles and shivering at the scars on his skin. He looked as if he had been flayed; there were great ridges of seared, scarred flesh crisscrossing his torso and back.

"What happened?" I asked, feeling tears come to the corners of my eyes for reasons I couldn't exactly explain.

He smiled sadly. "Another life," he said simply, reaching down to kiss me again.

"Are they painful?" I persisted, tracing them gently.

"Not anymore."

But the tears that had been gathering started to fall anyways, slipping silently down my cheeks.

"Don't," he said, reaching up to catch one of my tears. "I can't stand to see you sad." I closed my eyes tightly and nodded.

"I just… they're… Now I can see why you don't like to talk about your past."

"Among other reasons." When he kissed me, it tasted like salt and sacrifice.

His boots and pants joined the growing pile of clothes. I felt the mattress shift with the weight of another person, as he crawled into bed next to me.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked, his voice sounding strained. I saw in his eyes how painful it would be for him to stop now, yet here he was, giving me one last chance to back out.

"I've never been more sure of anything," I replied, kissing him again.

And in that moment, I was. The alcohol had made me loose, set me free from those constraining inhibitions. Right now, this was exactly what I wanted.

I saw a flicker of what looked like regret cross his face, but it was gone before I could be sure it had been there in the first place. "You are so beautiful," he murmured, running his hands down my body. I shivered as he kissed me again – my lips, my neck, my collarbone, my breasts, my stomach, even lower…

And then it was all exquisite pleasure the likes of which I had never dreamed of, as I let him carry me aloft to an ecstasy that was beyond anything I had ever felt before.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Told you the wine bottles would come back! ;-D**

**Yes, things just got a whole lot steamier between our favorite couple. You have no idea how long I've been waiting to write that scene - probably since I first started writing this story. Parts of it did come from "Lost in Time" by Melissa de la Cruz, the new Blue Bloods book (if you've never heard of that series, shame on you! Go look it up right after you finish here). In case you're wondering, E and I split this chapter into bits - I wrote the beginning through the flashback, then she wrote up to the kiss, and I finished it off.**

**Bloom's dress is real, if you'd like to see it - go to prom-magics-dot-com (minus the hyphens, of course) and add the following:**

/upfile/Prom%20Dresses/Plus%20Size%20Prom%20Dress/Silver%20Strapless%20Beading%20Band%20Satin%20Floor%20Length%20Plus%20Size%20Prom%

**So... yeah. A _lot_ happened in this chapter. Why don't you hit that little green button and tell us what you thought? ;-)**

**Toodles!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Mmm…

This was heavenly.

It was like I was wrapped in a cocoon of what I imagined clouds were made of; soft, warm, cushiony, and insanely comfortable. My mind was utterly content and blissfully blank. I couldn't ever remember being so… happy. Yes, that was the word – although truly, it failed to completely describe my current state of being.

I shifted slightly, and as I did, rays of sunlight coming through the window hit at just the right angle to illuminate a sudden pounding headache.

Okay, so not perfect.

_Ugh. What _is_ this? Why are there little people stomping grapes on my brain?_

Grapes.

_Wine_.

In my oddly disjointed memory, a piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

_Wine. I was drinking wine last night_.

Well, that would account for the headache – it was (undoubtedly) a wicked hangover.

_But I wasn't alone, was I? There was someone else…_

Just then, I felt a warm leg press against my own. There was a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach, which only grew larger as I realized my current state of undress.

_Please, please, _please_ let me be mistaken…_

But apparently someone up there has a really twisted sense of humor, because when the person next to me rolled over, I found myself staring into a very familiar pair of gold eyes.

My mouth dropped open – and I immediately snapped it shut when the small movement set off a chain reaction of firecrackers in my head. "Damn it," I muttered, my hand going to my forehead. "I _hate_ you. I really, _really_ hate you."

"Good morning to you too," Baltor's voice reached my ears. He sounded about as happy as I felt, and I briefly wondered if his head was throbbing as brutally as mine. "Have a bit of a hangover, darling?"

"I'd hit you if I could feel my arms."

I heard him chuckle darkly. "I'll take that as a yes. Here." I felt the weight of the bed shift, and I turned my head to see him rummaging through a drawer of the dresser. He handed me a small bottle filled with a clear liquid. "Takes the edge off."

Cautiously I took the bottle, swirling its contents around a bit inside the glass. "I've never heard of anything like that."

"Ah, the wonders of magic," Baltor replied, throwing the covers aside and rising out of the bed. I only managed to watch him for about three seconds before my cheeks flushed red and I turned my head sharply, unscrewing the lid and taking a swig from the bottle. It tasted like cough medicine and magic.

"So this is how you sober up in the mornings," I said absently, looking at the label on the bottle closely. He was right; my headache was slowly starting to fade and the light was becoming bearable.

"Among other ways," he answered, his voice cool. I could tell that sober line wasn't the best thing to say.

I sat up in bed – slowly, so the room wouldn't spin as much. "What… what happened last night?" I asked, having a pretty good idea what the answer would be but hoping that maybe, just maybe, there was a different explanation.

Judging by the look Baltor gave me, there wasn't one. "We both wake up with killer headaches in a bed together with our clothes scattered all over the room and you can't deduce what happened?" He pulled his pants on. "I should write to your school and tell them to improve your sexual education."

I groaned, banging my head against the headboard. "No. No, we_ couldn't_ have…"

Baltor threw an article of clothing at me, drawing my attention away from the guilt that was slowly pooling in my stomach. I straightened it and found myself holding a blue and silver belted tunic. Another second and a pair of black leggings landed next to it. After a moment, I finally took the hint and got up to get dressed.

The silence that followed was a bad thing, given the ideas that were currently swimming in my head. How the hell could this have happened?

I thought back to that horrifying day in eighth grade when Andy had just asked me out and Mike decided to give me 'the talk', which alone left me cringing and unable to look any guy in the eye for the next two days. No, there was no way I could have done this on my own. There had to be another factor in this story.

I pulled the tunic over my head and adjusted the belt, wincing as my brain throbbed in protest, like it wanted to burst out of my skull. That medicine was working, but it was no miracle cure. I wondered if Baltor's hangover was as bad as mine.

_Baltor._

My eyes widened, and I sat down on the edge of the bed with a thump. Baltor had suggested pouring a glass of wine last night. I had been so mortified over that dance, I was pretty much a statue on the couch in the hotel room. After his endless nagging that the wine would loosen me up, I ended up taking a glass. And then another one. And then another one. And before I knew it I was halfway to Cloud Nine only to come crashing down at twice the speed.

It was all clear in my head. "That bastard," I muttered under my breath.

"Come again?" I nearly jumped, not having realized Baltor was close enough to hear me. When I looked up I saw him leaning against the opposite wall, arms crossed over his chest in his usual stance.

I bit my lip, almost wondering whether or not I should reply. But I needed answers, and (as usual) he was the only one who could give them to me. "What the hell was that last night?"

"What?"

A faint red blush crept into my cheeks. "You know…"

A smirk crossed his face. "Maybe I should be the one asking you that question. Giving a last kiss to a man condemned to wander the galaxy after you get your planet back?"

"Me? You started this whole thing last night. If you hadn't offered that wine, I wouldn't have gone and slept…" I stopped mid-sentence, almost too embarrassed to continue, and his smirk widened. "I was _drunk_!" I snapped defensively. "Everything last night happened because of that wine!"

"And that's my fault?" When I didn't respond, he scoffed and started walking toward the windows. "So it's my fault you're stealing magic from the realms, my fault all your friends are either against you or devoid of their memories, and now it's my fault you can't control your alcohol consumption?"

I almost growled. "Well, it _is_ your fault you got an underage girl drunk in a hotel room on Delora and totally crossed the line with her!"

"You didn't exactly struggle with me on top of you, did you? And if I remember correctly, I _gave_ you the opportunity to stop, and you didn't take it."

I bit back a scream. "That's not the point!"

"Then what point are you trying to get across? That this is all my fault?"

"In this case? Yes!"

"We've been through this a million times before! Goddamn it Simone, I–"

"Simone?" An icy feeling crept into my veins, almost cutting off my ability to breathe. "Who's Simone?"

The room was deathly quiet. Baltor's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Damn," he breathed, looking like he wanted to shoot himself in the head.

I felt my jaw set as it became all too obvious who _Simone_ was. Slowly I stood up, looking him right in the eyes. It seemed as though our roles were reversed; he was usually the angry, critical one, and I had made the mistake. But I'm pretty sure he never felt like crying like I did now. But the anger pushed it down; the anger was there in a rush and it was fierce and left no room for pity. "I honestly don't know who's more_ pathetic_," I spat. "You for doing this, or me for thinking that you actually cared about me."

"Bloom, please–"

But I'd already disappeared.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****...sorry!**

**Next chapter, which (outside forces willing) should be up very soon, resolves this a lot more, promise. Originally, it was all going to be one big chapter, but then we decided not to overload you guys with so many giant chapters in a row (since the next big plot arc after this one is resolved is enormous). So instead you get... this.**

**Please don't kill us - instead, why don't you drop us a review? ;-)**

**XOXO,**

**- Authoress and ember**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Stella always used to say that the best way to mend a broken heart was to shop until your legs fell off. (She also advocated trying to date their best friend, and selling all the gifts they'd given you during the relationship.) In my case, I didn't have another best friend to date – and my boyfriend was probably busy with _Diaspro _– but I did have the infinite credit card Baltor had given me on Popularis.

With that in mind, I went to the one place where I wouldn't have to worry about magic: Earth. Mitzi had once spent an entire year bragging about the huge shopping spree she'd been on in London, so I decided to take her advice and try it for myself. After getting a room in one of the posh (that was the word in England, right?) hotels, I took that credit card to every big name department store in the city. Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges; you name it. It was kind of nice acting like a spoiled rich girl – "I'll take that and that and… oh, I love that, so give me three of them" – and after a while I was having way too much fun to think about anything else.

When I got back to the hotel, one of the bellhops took the shopping bags from the back of the cab. "I'll have these delivered to your room right away, miss," he said in a sharp accent. "There should also be a hot pot of tea waiting in your room, imported from India. Shall you require anything else?"

I politely shook my head, trying to forget all the etiquette rules I'd mastered over the last few weeks. I wasn't in a palace; I was on Earth. I was home, where all I was was an American girl having the time of her life. "That's fine."

He nodded. "I must say, that necklace is exquisite. Is it from Fortnum and Mason?"

"What?" My hands flew to my neck, coming in contact with a silver chain supporting a decent-sized… diamond?

_The necklace. _I must've put it back on this morning without thinking. My chest tightened, and I considered yanking it off my neck and tossing it into the street, considering I now knew who it probably had belonged to. Instead, I took a deep breath and tried to smile. "Yeah," I said shakily. "It caught my eye."

"Well, the craftsmanship is impeccable," he continued, obviously intrigued by the piece (I didn't blame him; I'd been too). "Something of that caliber has to be an antique. You're a very lucky girl."

I nodded, feeling quite the opposite. "Thanks."

Another bellhop handed him the last of the bags, which he took with a nod. "Are you sure there's nothing else I can do for you, miss?"

"No, thank you."

_There are definitely some perks to this whole 'having money' thing_, I decided, making my way through the quietly elegant lobby to the elevator banks. Everywhere I went, the salespeople had practically rolled out the red carpet – falling all over themselves to bring me tea, champagne, snacks; show me the latest styles, set aside things in the dressing rooms… a far cry from my usual shopping experiences, on Earth and in Magix. And the limitless credit card meant I didn't have to do my usual dance of checking price tags and balancing amounts in my head; today, there was nothing I couldn't afford. It was a dizzying feeling, seeing numbers I couldn't have dreamed in my wildest fantasies mount up on the cash register, and being able to simply sign my name and have all those beautiful things belong to me.

_I wonder, if I had grown up a princess, would shopping sprees like this have been second nature?_ It was an interesting thought, although I doubted its truth value. I'd always thought of myself as being more of the practical type, than the kind who would drop $500 on a pair of sandals on a whim. Still, for an afternoon it was fun to pretend.

That was all this had been, though. Pretend. No matter how hard I'd tried to put the morning (and the previous night)'s events out of my mind, that exchange with the bellhop had brought it all rushing back to the forefront.

After what Faragonda had told me at the beginning of the year, I'd never considered the idea that Baltor had had a life before the attack that destroyed Sparx. He always seemed like this great, monstrous _presence_, created by the Ancestresses to do their bidding. Obviously, though, I'd been wrong. So very, very wrong.

My hand went up to the diamond again, twisting it back and forth on the chain out of force of habit. Even though it hurt like hell to think about, a tiny part of me couldn't help but wonder about this _Simone_ person. Who was she? What was she like? In the absence of more details, my mind conjured up dozens of faceless, indistinct women that could've been her; each one hurt more to imagine.

I didn't allow myself to dwell on why it hurt so much. _Anyone would be mad if they found out they lost their virginity to someone who just used them as a replacement for someone else,_ I told myself. _There is no other reason that I'm angry. None at all._

I passed a few of the other bellhops as I stepped out of the elevator, their hands now empty. They nodded politely at me as I went down the hall, pulling the key card out of my pocket. I opened the door, wondering if I could find some aspirin in a medicine cabinet or something – my head was starting to pound something fierce.

The door closed with a soft _click_. I glanced around the room, taking in the opulent splendor that had so wowed me the first time I'd set foot in here – plush carpet, gilded light fixtures, expensive-looking wallpaper; a giant pile of tissue-paper-stuffed bags piled around the antique chairs and love seat.

And a person sitting on one of those chairs, looking through one of those many bags.

"A leather dress," Baltor remarked absently, examining the garment in his hands. His eyes shifted to me momentarily, their gold depths swirling with emotions I couldn't name. "That hardly seems like something you'd wear. A little too daring."

Just like that morning, I felt a sudden rush of anger, though this time it was mixed with fatigue, making it harder for the anger to boil over. Instead, I calmly unclasped the necklace and hurled it at his head as hard as I could. "Get out."

The small smirk on his face melted away, and he stood up. "Bloom, if you'd just listen to me–"

"Get _out_!" I snapped, heading toward the bathroom; I was in desperate need of that aspirin now. "You are the _last_ person in the entire _world_ I want to talk to right now, so just do yourself a favor and leave with your stupid necklace."

"The necklace isn't exactly important right now, is it?"

I stalked into the bathroom and slammed the door, locking it before Baltor could reach it. Then I started looking through the various items laid out on the sink, hoping what I needed was somewhere in there. "Just leave," I pleaded, feeling myself growing weaker by the second.

"Not until we talk about this."

"What would you like to talk about? The fact that you used me? That you lied to me? That the only reason you ever cared about me was just so you could find a replacement for… that _woman_?"

It was silent outside the door, the shadow underneath the only assurance he was still there. Carefully, I walked over to the door, leaning my forehead against the cool mirror that hung from it. "Is that why you never talked to me about your past?" I asked quietly. "Because of her?"

I heard Baltor sigh. "Bloom, I'm a very… private person. A closed book, as you call it. It's not… easy, to talk about everything that happened back then."

"But it was easy enough to try and use me to replace her."

"No! No… I just…" He sounded like he was trying to compose himself, but in a weird way we both were. It had been a long day, with a lot of emotions running wild; I'd been so focused on how I was feeling, I didn't really stop to think about Baltor.

I bit my lip. "Who is Simone?"

There was a pause. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

Another pause, longer this time. "Unlock the door."

Slowly, I straightened up and undid the lock on the door, letting it slide open. I saw Baltor straighten up; he must've been mirroring my position on the other side of the door. He walked over to the couch, motioning for me to sit down on the other end. I hesitated, then sat down on one of the armchairs adjacent to the couch.

He took a deep breath and began speaking. "Simone was… my wife." My body tensed at the word, even though it was really just a confirmation of what I'd suspected all along. "We were married for only a few months, but we'd known each other for years growing up. By that time, the war on Sparx was well underway."

"And… you were participating in it?"

Baltor shook his head. "When the war began, I had no part in it, nor was I interested in being a part of it. I had my own life, and I figured the whole thing would just blow over in a matter of months, considering how much your parents kept emphasizing that the Ancestresses were not a threat. Simone was more interested in the war than I was; she was studying psychology. Why they were attacking, what prompted them… things like that."

I nodded slowly. "So… what happened?"

"There was a major attack on the main square in front of the palace. Your parents sent the royal army out with shoot-to-kill orders – probably thinking they could nip this thing in the bud right then and there. Simone had been in the library when it happened. I called her and told her to avoid the square; I knew the idea of getting a firsthand look at the Ancestral Witch clan was tempting, but I didn't want her behaving recklessly just to get a good thesis paper out of it." He sighed. "In hindsight, I should've known better. My call was probably exactly what sent her out there."

I felt an eerie cold seep into my skin. I knew where this had to be going, but I refused to believe it. He continued, "An hour after I called, she hadn't gotten home, and reporters were saying there were massive casualties in the square. They were advising everyone to stay indoors because the fighting was still going on, but I went to find her.

"It seemed like every sidewalk in the city was stained red. I don't know how long it took me to get there; we didn't live far, but there were seemingly hundreds of guards barricading the square, trying to keep bystanders away – I wasn't the only one who'd come out to help fight or maybe find loved ones. It looked like they were having a hard time distinguishing who was on their side, and who was working with the ancient witches.

"All the guards kept telling us to stay back, stay back – they were getting somewhat aggressive about it. And then I saw Simone, on the other side, standing in the doorway of the library, which wasn't far from the guards. I tried to get around the blockade to her, certain that if I could just be there with her, I could keep her safe." He inhaled deeply, looking like it pained him to say the next words out of his mouth. "And that's when the explosion happened."

My eyes went wide. I could almost picture this in my mind's eye – the two of them, so close yet so far apart, and then…

"Your scars." Somehow, my mouth found the will to speak, even as my mind was a million miles away. "That's what caused them, isn't it?"

He nodded, closing his eyes. "To this day, I don't know which side was responsible – whether the blast came from the Ancestresses, as a final strike on anyone left in the square, or if it was the work of the royal army trying to kill off any of their remaining supporters. All I knew then was the consequences, and that it was the guards who had kept me from getting to her in time." When he opened his eyes again, he looked sad and lost, nothing like the fearsome dark wizard I knew him to be. "And so I blamed your parents."

I inhaled sharply, my mind trying to process this overload of new information. Never in a million years had I expected a story like this. If what he was saying were true – and I had no reason to believe it wasn't – then it would put everything in a new perspective.

_But no one else knows this. No one… except me._

Apparently realizing I wasn't about to say anything anytime soon, Baltor continued. "The Ancestresses found me not too long afterwards, while I was still too distraught in my grief to think rationally. They tempted me with all sorts of promises, of power and respect – and revenge. They wanted me to lead their final attack on the palace, and promised I could be the one to finish off your parents. I agreed. And…" he almost laughed. "I suppose you know the rest."

I forced a chuckle, feeling anything but amused. "Yes, I suppose I do."

A shimmering object on the ground caught my eye. I glanced down and saw the diamond necklace lying near my foot. Slowly, I bent down and picked it up. "This was hers?" I asked.

He nodded. "An old gift. I don't remember for what exactly; it was a long time ago."

I examined the diamond, carefully holding it out to him when I saw it wasn't damaged. "I shouldn't have thrown it."

A small smile spread across his face, and he closed my hand around it. "I want you to keep it. That's the reason I gave it to you."

I pressed my lips together, then set it down on the coffee table. As innocuous as it sounded, his statement had brought back all sorts of memories from the night before, many of which made my cheeks flush. And now that my anger had abated, there was still something else we needed to talk about… "So about last night," I started.

He arched one eyebrow and settled back against the couch, a hint of a smirk playing across his lips. It was truly amazing how quickly he could switch gears. "I was wondering when you were going to bring that up."

I felt myself blush. "I'm sorry for what I said this morning. I was… _conflicted_, last night, and I used the wine to try to escape my problems. And then I blamed you unfairly, because I didn't want to admit that there was a reason I drank so much. And I don't know what was going on in your head, but there's obviously a reason why _you_ drink so much, so… can we just agree to chalk it up to the alcohol and leave it at that?"

"No."

I snapped to attention. "What?"

Baltor stared at me with a kind of determination I'd never seen before. "I don't know how much of last night you remember, but I meant what I said, about holding back for a long time. There really is something extraordinary about you, Bloom. And before you ask – no, it's not because you remind me of Simone. This has nothing to do with her."

There was a funny feeling in my chest. "What… what exactly are you getting at here?"

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Look, I know you and Sky are probably closer than I'd like to imagine…"

That little feeling faded. "Actually… about Sky. There's something I kind of didn't tell you."

"Oh?"

"Back on Isis, I needed you to teleport me out of the palace because…" I bit my lip and lowered my eyes, unable to meet his gaze. "I caught Diaspro and Sky kissing in the library. That's why I was so upset afterwards. I wasn't going to say anything, but… you deserve to know."

"You don't say…" There was an interesting sort of light in his eyes; if I didn't know better, I might've called it hopeful. "So… do you still have feelings for him?"

I sighed, staring down at my lap. "I'm not sure. Honestly, I was in two minds about him even before I saw them together. I don't know what it is, but this whole year I've felt a little strange around him – like there's some kind of wall between us or something."

"You deserve better than him."

My eyebrows shot up. "Oh really?" I said reflexively. "And who's good enough for me, then? You?"

"No." For a moment I paused, confused. "I'm not good enough for you. I've known that for a while. But it didn't stop me from…"

"…Stop you from what?"

He ran a hand through his hair, obviously nervous. "Come on Bloom, are you really going to make me say it like an idiot?"

"Say…" I trailed off as it clicked in my head. What he was trying to say to me. What he'd been _trying_ to show me for the past who knew how long, but I was too stubborn to see it. My jaw dropped, and I finally got my courage back and looked right into his gold eyes.

"Finally," he said.

When he kissed me, it was better than anything I could've imagined.

I lost myself in the taste of his lips on my own, his hands twisting in my hair, his strong body pressed against mine. The world seemed to shrink down to the size of this one little hotel room, and time to lengthen and stretch to infinite amounts. A nuclear bomb could've gone off outside and I would've remained blissfully oblivious.

I was breathless when he finally pulled back, feeling slightly lightheaded from the lack of oxygen. Baltor smirked, staring at me with barely contained amusement, obviously enjoying the effect he had on me (maybe a little too much…). He pushed a few strands of hair back from my face. "So should I take that as a…"

I laughed a little, and reached up to kiss him again. "I love you too, you idiot."

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Awww, aren't they sweet? :)**

**What did you guys think? Did the backstory of Simone meet your expectations? E and I had such fun with that - it's so fun coming up with backstories for Baltor, because he's such a blank slate. (To clarify, in case anyone's confused: he was not born with dark magic, the Ancestresses gave it to him. So this story sort of fits in with canon, in a kind of abstract way.)**

**Next chapter should be up soon-ish, but heads up: it's a giant one, both in length and in major plot points that happen. Can't say too much without giving away major spoilers, but let's just say that life is not exactly going to be smooth sailing from here on out for our little lovebirds...**

**And finally - _all we want for Christmas is_ reviews, please! ;-)**

**Happy holidays, folks!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead," Baltor whispered in my ear, planting a soft kiss at the nape of my neck. Shivers of pleasure raced down my spine at his touch, and I sighed in sleepy happiness, snuggling closer to him.

"Come on, just five more minutes," I protested halfheartedly, eyes still closed.

"You would sleep all day if I let you, wouldn't you?" he chuckled, brushing his fingers across my bare shoulder.

With a small groan, I rolled over and opened my eyes, staring up at him and trying to look as innocent as possible. "Well, considering how little sleep I get at night…"

"Never heard you complaining," he retorted, leaning down to kiss me. My eyes slid closed as what had started out as a rather chaste kiss quickly grew into something deeper. That dizzying, head-rush feeling had not faded even as Baltor's kisses became less of a novelty, and I'd eventually just chalked it up to the Dragon Fire connection and come to accept it as a very nice side benefit of our relationship. Not that there weren't others as well…

"As much as I'd love to do this all day, Bloom, there are some things we need to discuss." I groaned as he pulled away, pouting slightly in a way I knew he found irresistibly adorable. "Oh, don't give me that face. We both knew this was only a temporary reprieve."

I sighed and wrapped myself in the sheets. He was right, as always; I just didn't want to face reality.

For the past few days, we'd stayed in London, seeing the sights, enjoying the city, and generally acting like any American couple on vacation. There had been no talk of magic or stealing spells or anything of the sort; it was insanely refreshing, and just what my conscience had needed to allow me to breathe. But of course, there was no getting around the fact that eventually, we had to finish what we'd started back in the magical dimension.

"So what's the plan, then?"

"If you don't mind, there's one more realm I'd like to visit before we go to Sparx," he said, and I secretly let out a breath of relief. As much as I hated stealing spells, the idea of confronting the Ancestresses scared me even more.

"Sure," I said without hesitation, making a move to get out of bed. "When do we leave?"

He grabbed my hand to stop me, and the first flutters of apprehension came to life in my stomach. "It's Eraklyon."

"…Oh." I leaned back against the headboard.

"I know, I know, it's the last place _either_ of us wants to be right now. But the spells in their royal library are valuable, and could be key in us going against the Ancient Witches." He looked me in the eye. "Bloom, we don't have to go if you're truly uncomfortable."

I shook my head. "Who said I was uncomfortable?" He gave me a look, and I sighed. "Okay fine, the idea doesn't excite me. But if we really need those spells… it's better to be safe than sorry, right?" Baltor still didn't look convinced, so I added, "It'll be fine. They didn't invent disguise spells for nothing, right?"

He cracked a smile and pulled me against him, placing a kiss on my forehead. "You're brilliant, you know that?"

"Oh, I like to be reminded every so often." That earned me a playful swat on the nose and another kiss – a real one this time, long and sweet.

"I'm taking a shower before we go," he announced, throwing off the blankets and heading for the bathroom. I watched him go, smiling appreciatively at the view, before a thought occurred to me and I leaped out of bed.

"Bloom, what are you doing?"

"Taking a shower." I batted my eyelashes innocently, angling my body suggestively towards him. "If we want to get this trip to Eraklyon over with, doesn't it make sense to save time here?"

His eyes flickered with lust. Behind us, steam collected on the glass walls. "You are insatiable."

"And you love me anyways," I countered. His response was to laugh as he kissed me, pulling me down under the spray.

* * *

_So do I need the Eraklyon spell archive of the seventeenth or sixteenth century?_

_ You need _fifteenth_, volume six._

I paused, my hand hovering inches away from a thick blue book. _Okay, if there are six volumes of spells from the fifteenth century alone, I think there's a problem._

Though I couldn't hear it, it was almost like I could _feel_ Baltor laughing from all the way in the ballroom. _And to think that's only spells with slight dark energy levels._

Groaning, I stepped up on the rolling ladder to properly reach the next level of books, making sure to grip the sides tightly. I was a good ten feet off the ground, and I was not about to fall. _Fifteenth century, volume six. Anything else?_

_ …Grab the sixteenth century spells while you're at it. Volumes three through nine._

_ I'm seriously considering murdering you._

_ Aww, I love you too._

I took a book from the shelf and let it float down to the growing pile on the ground. _I shouldn't be much longer. Save me a glass of champagne and a dance?_

_ I wouldn't dream otherwise. See you soon._

Sky had shown me the main library on Eraklyon last year, but I didn't remember much of it (maybe due to the fact that we were off saving _Diaspro_ from the Wrong Righters); this was evident by the hour I'd spent in here and the small amount of books I'd collected. Usually, this was Baltor's job, but since he'd never managed to infiltrate Eraklyon over the last year, I was the one with the greater knowledge of the palace. Which was why _he_ was currently in the ballroom keeping an eye on the guards as whatever fundraiser Sky's parents were holding was going on, while _I_ was scaling a wall of ancient spells using a pile of wood that dared call itself a ladder.

"I seriously need to consider upper body workouts," I muttered to myself, stretching to grab another book. Squinting slightly, I counted the pile on the floor, which was more difficult than it sounded, considering the room was mostly dark. If I needed seven more books, it would only take one spell to teleport everything…

The sound of creaking wood distracted me from my thoughts, and made the hair on the back of my neck stand to attention (and not in the pleasant ways it had been over the last few days). I slowly brought my hand back from scanning books and gripped the wood pile… sorry,_ ladder_. "Is someone there?" I called softly, though I knew it was probably Baltor messing with me.

"As a matter of fact, someone is."

A metal object shot out of the darkness and scraped my side, throwing me off balance and causing me to slip. I barely managed to grab onto the edge of a bookcase as the ladder tipped and fell to the ground. Said object came back at me a second later, and I shot a fireball at it, turning the boomerang into a ball of hot metal that crashed to the ground. Carefully, I dropped to the ground, landing on my feet and rolling to avoid major impact. I glanced down at the now useless piece of technology at my feet; melted dials and lights and…

_The Red Fountain insignia?_

"Hold it right there!"

My eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as my attacker stepped out of the shadows, dressed in white slacks and a navy blue coat covered in pins and official-looking patches. His blond hair was smoothed back out of his blue eyes, which were guarded and held a good dose of anger in them.

"_Sky_," I managed to breathe, and took a few steps away as he pulled a phantom blade out of his pocket and switched it on. I wondered why he was attacking, and it took me a few seconds to work past my blond moment and remember I was using a disguise spell. I didn't even know what I looked like; why would he?

"Now, he said, his voice cold, "do you mind telling me what you're doing in my library?"

_Get Baltor!_ a voice in the back of my head screamed, but I remained helplessly frozen in place, my heart torn between its simultaneous desires to run far away from him and run right into his arms.

_This _was precisely the kind of situation I'd been scared of encountering on Eraklyon.

"I can have the entire royal guard in here in a second," he continued, in a cold, commanding voice I'd only ever heard him use during the infamous Millenium Ball incident. "With all the important people at this party, my parents spared no expense; every single member is on high alert, just waiting for a signal. Or we can do this the easy way."

My heart pounded in my ears. Every smart instinct I had was warning me against what I was about to do, but I wasn't thinking clearly as I dropped the disguise spell, lowering my defenses in a single breath.

The phantom blade clattered to the floor. "…Bloom?"

"H-hey Sky," I said, leaning against a bookshelf and trying my hardest to sound nonchalant. "Am I missing a good party in there?"

"Are you–" He stopped himself short, burying his face in his hands in disbelief. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Not exactly how I thought you'd react to seeing me after all this time." Where I was coming up with the nerve to say this stuff, I had no clue; under the long black skirt of my dress, my thighs were trembling in fear.

He gave a short, sharp laugh. "Well, I hardly expected to see you like this, so I guess we're even." Crossing his arms over his chest, he leveled me with his stare. "Now I'm going to ask you one more time. What the hell are you doing?"

"Oh, you know me… can't resist a good book."

Sky's eyes narrowed. "Really? Because you hardly seem like the type of person to be digging up ancient spell books."

I gave a nervous little laugh. "How close would you be to hitting me if I said you can't judge a book by its cover?"

He stared at me cautiously. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd say your personality accidentally got switched with Baltor."

"Hehe… funny you should say something like that…" I bit my lip, that little voice in the back of my head now yelling at me for my stupidity.

"Bloom…" His gaze turned away from me and I fought the urge to sigh in relief. Meanwhile he seemed lost in thought – which, I realized a moment too late, was definitely not a good thing. "You disappear without a word after graduation, no one's heard from you since, and now I find you in the library with a bunch of old spells, acting all funny when I mention Baltor…" I could almost see the wheels turning in his brain, and wanted to kick myself for that last comment, as innocuous as it had sounded in my mind.

"Please," he said, turning back to face me, "just slap me and tell me I've completely lost my mind and you're prepared to break up with me because I even suggested it."

"Sky, I…"

_Lie! Lie! Lie!_ The voice was so loud, it was a wonder Sky couldn't hear it. _Listen to him – slap him! Tell him it's ridiculous! Tell him you still love him!_

"I'm sorry."

And I was also an idiot.

Ever heard of the color draining slowly from someone's face? Well with Sky, it didn't happen like that; his face went from normal to white as a sheet in about the same amount of time it took for me to realize that this was an extraordinarily bad idea (ie: less than a second).

I bit my lip as a heavy sense of guilt started to settle in the base of my stomach. "Sky, I can explain…"

"What happened?" he cut me off. He looked – to my surprise – worried. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you? I swear, when I get my hands on him he's going to pay…"

I raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" When it clicked in my head, I almost laughed. "You think Baltor kidnapped me or something?"

"Or spelled you." Before I could blink, Sky stepped forward and tilted my head back, examining my neck (which was, of course, bare). "We can call Tecna or Timmy and they can run a diagnostic on you, see what's there that we can't detect normally."

I sighed deeply. "Sky… Sky, I'm not under a spell. I swear."

"Then you obviously have no idea what you were doing a few minutes ago. You were _stealing_ books from the library. God, I should've seen this coming; if Baltor came back once, he could do it again…"

"Sky! First of all, this is really uncomfortable." I pushed his hands away, letting my head fall back into a normal position. "Thanks. Second; I'm _not_ under a spell. I know I was taking those books, and I'm _really_ sorry. But there's a good explanation for all of this, I promise. Just hear me out."

"He's here, isn't he?" After maybe half a second of listening to me, it was obvious that Sky really didn't care about anything I had to say. "Of course he is; there's no way you'd be alone. Half the Magix Council is in the other room – I should warn them! We can get the guard to deal with him and–"

"No!" It took me a moment to realize that the flames flashing in front of my eyes weren't just in my mind; that I had actually just set Sky's coat on fire. Quickly, I rushed to extinguish it, apologizing profusely.

He stared at me like I was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode (somewhat appropriately so, considering I had just set him on fire; something I hadn't done by accident in _years_). "Why are you defending him?" he asked carefully. "That must be one pretty powerful spell; or Stockholm Syndrome, maybe, or…"

I watched his eyes shift as he seemed to take in something. "Or you think you're in love with him."

My silence was all the confirmation he needed.

He smacked his hand against a nearby bookshelf so hard, a couple volumes fell to the floor, with a loud _bang_ that was startling against the silence. "Damn it, Bloom," he exclaimed angrily. "I can't believe you. He's a criminal and a demon and he's just _using_ you!"

"You don't know what you're talking about." Though it felt like someone had a death grip on my chest, I somehow found the will to speak. "I'm sorry that I hurt you – believe me, I never intended for this to happen, but it just _did_, and I–"

"No. I'm _not_ listening to this." His eyes flashed angrily in a way I never thought I'd see out of usually even-tempered Sky. "You're not in your right mind, Bloom, if you think he actually cares about you. The second he gets what he wants, he'll leave you in the dust so fast you won't even have time to say a word."

I balled my hands into fists, nails cutting into my palms; but the pain was good, in a way, because it kept me from drawing those nails across Sky's throat. "We made a deal. I get something out of this too – something I've always wanted. My parents, Sky! He's going to help me get my parents back!"

Sky laughed – an angry, bitter sound. "You really believe that? Then you're not the girl I thought you were." He started walking towards me, and I stepped back automatically, because he scared me like this. "I'll bet you anything that whatever he's told you is nothing but lies. Because that's what he does, Bloom – he lies and cheats and uses whatever underhanded tactics he needs to win. Are you really so blind to all of that?"

"You don't know him!"

"I don't _need_ to know him to know that he's using you! I honestly can't believe you–"

"Oh really? Well why don't you go cry to _Diaspro_ about it!" I turned and started for the door, not caring that I didn't have the spell books with me.

"You really don't believe me, do you?" he called to me.

"What do you think?" I snapped sarcastically, not bothering to turn around.

He didn't say anything else until I reached the door to the library. "Do you remember when I thought you were a witch?"

My hand stilled as it reached for the doorknob. "What, when your precious girlfriend put that love spell on you?"

"Not at the Millennium Ball," he said irritably (I noticed he didn't deny the 'girlfriend' thing). "Way back in freshman year, when we broke into Cloud Tower so you could ask that book who you really were?"

"Because that worked out so well."

"The Trix set a trap on the book, remember?"

I didn't say anything, partially because he was right. I remembered Mirta tracking me down in the woods that morning and explaining everything to me. It seemed like an eternity ago. "Like it or not, that book has the answers that I know and you refuse to acknowledge. And I'm sure your precious little lover has the book somewhere in his collection." He stared back at me defiantly. "I dare you to prove me wrong."

My throat felt tight for reasons I couldn't entirely explain. "Fine. I will."

I managed to teleport myself away before the tears started to fall.

* * *

I sensed more than felt the book fall out of my lap and hit the ground, the pages bending at odd angles that may have ruined the magic kept inside. But at this point, I was far too upset to care.

How could he do this to me? I couldn't believe that after all I'd been through, all that had happened… In the end, Sky was right.

"Bloom?" My blood turned to ice water in my veins at the sound of Baltor's voice. "Thank heavens you're alright. What in the realms were you thinking, running off like that? You have no idea how worried I was." He placed his hand on my shoulder, and my skin felt like it wanted to crawl off my body.

"Oh, I'll bet."

I felt his hand tense, and he slowly pulled it off my shoulder. "Are you alright, Bloom?"

"How _dare_ you?"

I stood up and turned to face him. His face was set in a look of confusion, as if he didn't have a clue what was going on. _Good actor._ "How could you do this to me? I trusted you. I _cared_ about you. And it just turns out it was a ruse. Like everything else." I pushed past him and grabbed my bag, shoving it up high on my shoulder and trying hard not to look him in the eyes.

"Bloom, what is this about? I simply don't know what's gotten into you. You were fine before when we talked in the library, and now…" Even though I was purposefully looking away from him, I could _feel_ it as he slowly started to put the pieces together, like some weird kind of energy pulsing between the two of us. _That Dragon Fire connection does way more harm than good._ "What happened? What did he say to you? What _lies_ has he fed you about–"

"Lies?" I almost laughed. "Oh that's rich, coming from you. The game's up, _Baltor_," I spat. "You can stop wasting time with those pretty little stories of yours. I know the truth."

"What are you talking about?" he asked sounding more confused than ever. _He's a better actor than I could've imagined – but he can't fool me._

I felt him reaching out to my mind with the Dragon Fire connection, and a white-hot streak of anger flared through me. No way was I letting him back into my head. Focusing intently, I gathered my energy and _pushed_ him out of my mind. He recoiled like he'd been slapped. "What in the name of the Great Dragon is wrong with you?"

This time I did laugh; something so cold and sarcastic I don't even know if it could count as one. "What's wrong with _me_? Please, you know _exactly_ what you did. I saw that book, Baltor. I asked it for the truth about everything; my parents, the Ancient Witches, and _you_. And it told me _everything_."

"Enlighten me, then. Because I have no idea what you mean."

Rage bubbled up inside of me, fiercer and sharper than anything I had ever felt before. "Will you please just _stop_ with the lying already! My God, do you really think that little of me? To not even have the respect to admit the truth once you've been caught? You make me sick." With a huff, I headed for the exit.

"Where are you going?"

"Where does it look like?" I snapped. "I'm going to get my parents back."

"On your own? You're crazy!"

"Maybe, but at least I know I won't be deceived."

He grabbed my wrist, stopping me from leaving the cavern. "You can't take the witches on by yourself; you're not strong enough. They'll eat you alive, and more importantly you'll be playing right into their plan."

"So now you know about their plans? Gee Baltor, what _else_ have you been keeping from me?"

"Is that what you think? That thing told you I _lied_?"

"What else would it say?" I started to leave again, yanking my wrist out of his grasp, but he was too strong. "Let _go_! I obviously have to do this on my own. You got the spells you wanted; now stick to your end of the deal. Have fun living in a cave with that cat."

I felt his grip loosen. "After everything that's happened… all we've been through together… You're going to stop trusting me after getting advice from a _talking book?_"

My throat tightened, but I refused to start crying again, especially not in front of _him_. "A book can't lie to you."

"And I would?"

"You've certainly done it before." When I pulled my hand again, he let go, and I stalked towards the entrance to the cave.

"Is this your plan, then? Run from every problem for the rest of your life?" He almost laughed, though it was such a soft noise I couldn't tell. "My Bloom wouldn't have given up so easily."

"Maybe you didn't know me as well as you thought." I took a few more steps towards the entrance, then paused, like something was pulling me back to him. Reluctantly, I turned back for one last look.

He was shaking his head, staring at me with those gold eyes full of sadness. "Tell me something, Bloom," he said. "If what you felt for me was real… how can you do this? Unless it was all false, making you a liar too."

His words felt seared into my mind, scorching and burning. I held my head high, forcing back the tears that threatened to fall any second now, and opened my mouth, intending to shoot off one last biting remark before I left.

But the words died in my throat as I looked into his eyes, and in the end, I simply closed my eyes and vanished.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****So... yeah. Hey, can't say you weren't warned! I know, it sucks, but look at it this way - by the time they find their way back to each other (and they will, I promise)... well, then it'll be the end of the story. ****Yes, I can officially confirm that the end is somewhere in sight. At present, the plan is for this to be seventeen chapters, and they're already plotted out. It's just a matter of finding the time to write.**

**We'd very much appreciate some reviews, even if you're beyond fed up with us for this latest twist. Please?**

**Happy New Year, everyone!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

So, what do you do when your life reaches a new all time low?

I obviously couldn't go to any of my friends, for fear Sky had already gotten in touch with them and told them about Baltor. Unlike the last few times I'd done this running away thing, I didn't have any money. And I was far too embarassed to even _think_ about going back to Gardenia.

…Yeah, I didn't exactly have 'limitless possibilities' here.

I'd done extensive research on Sparx during the days I wasn't stealing spells, and learned that Baltor was in fact correct when he told me the main city was just frozen under a sheet of ice. (_Perhaps the only thing he hadn't lied about_, I thought somewhat bitterly, before forcing all thoughts of him out of my mind.) Not really having any other plans, I headed there, taking shelter in the first place I could get into. Then I decided to take a little time to rest and figure out a game plan.

I was going to go after the Ancient Witches. Alone. It was obvious this needed to be a solo mission, and I knew that if I put all my effort into it, I could defeat them. The only problem was in finding them. Besides Cloud Tower's crypt, I didn't know of any other place where I could find any trace of their essence, much less themselves. After shooting ideas back and forth in my head, I finally decided I'd investigate the palace tomorrow, maybe see if I could get any ideas from looking at the last place they'd acted in the magical dimension.

It wasn't the best plan in the world, but it was the only one I could think of.

I tried sleeping, but I just kept having nightmares. The book telling me in a cold voice that Baltor had been lying to me this entire time just to get back the spells he'd lost, how he never cared about me, how I'd screwed up everything in my life for nothing…

Eventually I gave up and started rummaging through the small house (I'd discovered that's what this place was), looking for anything that could be useful. I didn't find much; almost eighteen years of freezing temperatures and wind made very few things salvageable. I did find an old snow suit like the one I'd worn on my first expedition to Sparx, which helped save me from what would've been an extremely cold night otherwise. There was also an old hunting knife, a few frozen bottles of water, stuff like that. It was actually kind of creepy to think I was going through the things of someone who had probably been dead for years; that before everything went wrong, there was a person or family living here, totally oblivious as to what would soon happen.

As I made my way through the small study, hoping to find some old spell books, I accidentally knocked over a small picture frame sitting on the desk behind me. The frosted glass shattered as it hit the floor, and I saw a bit of the picture itself peeking out from under the shards. Curiously, I picked it up, noting how it was in pretty good condition for having spent eighteen years under ice. I turned it over slowly in my hands, wondering if I'd see the face of the former owner of the house.

And nearly dropped it when I saw Baltor instead.

Blinking furiously, I brushed away a thin layer of frost, thinking that I must've been imagining things. But no, the smiling man in the photo was definitely Baltor. He looked exactly the same, was even wearing the same burgundy jacket. His arm was around a young blond girl, maybe a few years older than me, with shining blue-green eyes, a perfect smile, and a diamond pendant around her neck.

_Simone_.

I fell back into a chair, staring intently at the picture in my hands as puzzle pieces started clicking together in my head. This was Baltor and Simone's old house; they'd _lived _here before I was even born. All the remnants of clothing and furniture and books had been theirs when they were married. I was probably even wearing her old snowsuit.

I glanced at the book sitting on the desk near me, brushing off a layer of ice crystals to reveal a psychology book, sheets of lined paper sticking out of it at every angle. Carefully, I wedged one out and saw it was covered in intricate cursive I didn't recognize.

She even had better handwriting than I did.

A small pang of jealousy radiated from my chest, but I quickly pushed it back down. I didn't care about Baltor, or his old wife, or that this was the house they'd once lived in. I had more important things to do.

But that didn't stop me from returning the paper to its original place, or placing the picture carefully on top of it, making sure it wouldn't fly away if a cold wind blew through the house. As I looked it over again, I realized that little pang wasn't jealousy at all, but rather a sense of longing. I wanted to meet Simone; ask her questions about Baltor I'd been too nervous to ask to his face. What was he like as a kid? What kind of things did they like to do? When had he asked her to marry him? Did his eyes dance when he looked at her the way I thought they'd done when he looked at me?

And, maybe most importantly, why were we stupid enough to fall in love with him in the first place?

* * *

_So this is my home. Can't say I'm all that jealous I never got to grow up here._

Sparx's royal palace was undoubtedly gorgeous back in the day; I'd seen pictures of it at the height of power, all golden and grandiose and splendid, like something out of a fairytale. But eighteen years under sheets of ice had not agreed with it. It looked sort of like something out of a gothic film – you know it was beautiful once, but now it's all ruined and falling apart and makes you kind of sad to look at it. Practically the definition of irony, if you thought about it: Sparx, the planet that guarded the Great Dragon's Flame, reduced to a frozen winter wasteland.

I kicked at what I thought was just a pile of snow in my path, that turned out to be a giant icicle. Pain radiated from my toes all the way up my foot, even with the thick-soled boots I'd snagged to go with the snowsuit, and I could feel the cold even with the Dragon Fire heat spell I'd cast.

_I need to figure out where I'm going_. _All this running around in circles is just going to drain my magic supply before I even get _close_ to the Ancestresses._

"Well, if I were them, where would I stage the final attack?" I thought out loud (the silence coupled with the cold was starting to creep me out).

That was… a really good question.

Not for the first time, I started to question my own sanity in running off like this. It had been a _very_ spur-of-the-moment decision, fueled by anger – both of which probably should've been a tip-off that I was getting in over my head. But now that I was already here, after everything I'd gone through up to now, I couldn't just turn around and go home.

Home – where was home anymore? Gardenia? Magix? The girls? Sky? Baltor? (_Definitely not the last one,_ I thought with a shudder.)

No, I had to do this. As crazy as it sounded, Sparx seemed to be the only home I had left. I refused to lose this too.

Suddenly, I sensed something – like a Dragon Fire connection. My immediate reaction was to tense like a spring, certain Baltor had managed to track me across the dimension again, but after a moment, I noticed that there was something different about this. It wasn't so much a tingle as a _calling_, like some subtle form of hypnosis targeting the magic in my blood. And it seemed to be drawing me somewhere.

_Well, what do I have to lose at this point?_ I thought, throwing caution to the wind and deciding to follow it. It was better than standing around trying not to turn into a popsicle.

The sensation increased as I kept walking, until it felt like my veins were burning with the call. I turned a corner and swallowed a gasp.

I recognized this place from history books; this was the royal courtyard, where the ruling family would often hold court during nice weather. But there was another, more sinister connotation as well. Whenever I tried to remember the destruction of Sparx, I saw an image of people screaming and running as they tried to avoid the dark spells raining from the sky… in this place.

I leaned against a half-broken column, trying to get a better view. Almost instantly, I felt a wave of dark energy pass through me, followed by something like an electric shock. I yelped and jumped back like I'd been burned.

So there was still dark magic here – powerful dark magic, if what just happened was any indicator (it'd have to be _extremely_ powerful to still react like that after eighteen years). My senses tingled in a way that had nothing to do with whatever had called me here. I had an undeniable feeling that I had found what I was looking for.

_Okay… I found the place of the last battle. Now what?_

I pursed my lips. Geez, I really had jumped into this blind. _What, did you think a trans-dimensional portal was going to just pop up out of nowhere for you?_

Careful not to touch anything, I took a few steps into the courtyard, looking around at all the crumbling columns and cracked structures. Even as I skirted anything that could possibly shock me, I could _feel_ the dark magic pulsing in the air, weighing down on me like a thick smoke. The sheer intensity of it felt like it was sapping my strength with every breath I took.

_Maybe I should just call it a day…_

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of light from behind me. The previously dull icy air now seemed charged with electricity. Curiously, I turned around to see a giant swirling purple… portal.

_Well will you look at that?_

I took a cautious step closer, reaching my hand out to touch it. It had the familiar signature of dark energy, which was a good sign if I wanted it to take me to Obsidian – right?

_Don't go in there, Bloom!_ a voice in my head screamed. It sounded a lot like Baltor. _It's a trap! You're playing right into their hands! Don't you dare go in there!_

"You don't get to tell me what to do anymore," I said defiantly, not caring that I was basically talking to myself. And then, fueled by a fresh surge of confidence mixed with anger, I stepped through the portal.

* * *

"Congratulations, Your Highness. We were wondering if you would ever come this far."

I shook my head, trying to almost wake myself up; it felt like I'd been asleep for days. I looked around, but only saw black in front of me. A cold shiver came over me, and as I moved to tug the snowsuit tighter, I saw that it was gone, replaced with my Enchantix.

"What's the matter?" another cold voice called out, and I jumped and spun in its direction, hoping to see something. "You look confused, dear."

"Maybe we kept her under too long," a third one said, and they all started laughing.

I straightened up, no longer afraid. "Show yourselves!"

"Touchy," the first voice said, sounding smug. "Ladies, let's… shine a little light on her situation."

The next moment, a dull light came out of nowhere, allowing me to see a good distance in front of me, but not enough to see how large whatever this place actually was. And floating in front of me like something from a horror movie were… the Ancient Witches.

"We must congratulate you first of all, Princess," the voice I'd heard before continued. She seemed to be the leader of sorts – her grey hair was held up in five separate crown-like extensions, and her long dress and cape were a faint bluish-gray, reminding me of Icy. I recalled the information I'd spent hours devouring in the library, reading anything I could find about the Ancestresses. I knew that I knew their names from somewhere… Finally, it came to me. _So this is Belladona…_

"Reaching Obsidian on your own is quite an accomplishment," the witch on Belladona's left added. _Lilith_, I thought, noticing her super-long flowing hair and purple-gray dress and cape, resembling Darcy.

"Now," the third one – Tharma, I thought her name was – said. Like Stormy, her hair was a giant frizzy cloud, and her dress and cape were tinged maroon. "What is it that you want?"

I took a deep breath. Though I'd met the witches in Cloud Tower's crypt, seeing them in flesh and bone (well, not really flesh, but… you know) was a bit intimidating. "I demand that you release my parents and restore my planet."

"Ooh, big orders from such a small girl," Tharma cackled, obviously amused.

"And without her little friends, too," Lilith added. "Where's your club? The Winx – isn't that what you call yourselves?"

They laughed, but I stood my ground, even as I felt the pit of my stomach drop. "This isn't their home planet, or their problem. This is between _you_ and _me_."

"As it should be," Belladona said in a cold voice. Lilith and Tharma immediately stopped laughing, and I realized how Belladona inflicted fear into the other two, just like Icy did with Darcy and Stormy. "You've come this far, Princess, and we will honor that."

"We will?" Lilith and Tharma said in shocked unison.

"You will?" I asked at the same time, my jaw dropping in surprise.

A cool smile spread over Belladona's face, and my slight sense of relief disappeared. "Yes. We will give you a fair chance to fight against us. If you defeat us, we will release your parents and restore your planet."

"…And if I fail?"

"As a wise man once said: you'll be gone, so you won't have to worry about it."

I gulped as they broke into another round of laughs. Could I seriously take on the three of them and win? I'd defeated the Trix countless times before, and sent Lord Darkar back to his grave; why couldn't I handle these three too?

"You're on."

"Just the answer we wanted to hear." The second the words left her mouth, the light went out and I was plunged into total darkness. My heart beat faster as I produced a small flame, just enough to see what was immediately in front of me.

A jolt of lightning hit me in the back, stinging my wings. I pitched face-first out of the sky, and for one terrifying second I thought I was plummeting straight into oblivion (I hadn't seen anything like solid ground during the brief time there was light). Then, at the last moment, my wings jump-started back to life, and I was propelled upwards.

I blindly shot a barrage of fire arrows into the darkness, and was rewarded with a shower of ice crystals. Though I flew fast and dodged most of them, one scraped my arm, and left a painful freeze-burn sensation that lingered. _Icy's sure don't do that,_ I thought, wondering not for the first time if I had gotten in over my head. _Well, it's _definitely_ too late to back out now._

"Come on, Princess," I heard Tharma's voice sneer, and twisted my head every which way, trying to figure out where it was coming from. "Where's that all-mighty Dragon Fire?"

I huffed, and in response shot out a large ball of fire toward her voice. It made contact with something, and a moment later she screamed. I was pretty happy with myself, but a second later a large energy burst sent me flying into something solid that made my shoulder scream with pain. Tharma's laughter rang in my ears.

"I… _can't_… give up," I said to myself, forcing my body to stand up straight. "You've come this far, Bloom. Now is not the time for stage fright."

"How cute," Lilith drawled, sounding much too loud from behind me. Rings of dark energy like what Darcy used slammed into my back, pushing me forward and agitating my already sore shoulder. "She thinks she has a chance." Tharma joined her in laughing viciously.

"She always did love to fool herself," Belladona taunted. Struggling through the pain, I cast a simple illumination spell, giving enough light to see the three of them flying in a circle around me. "Thinking she can order us around. Just like another man I know…"

For a moment, I thought I was going to hear more about my parents and their final battle with the Ancient Witches, but I was mistaken. "It's no surprise Baltor's not here with you. Not that it would make a difference, of course."

My blood boiled at the mention of Baltor. "Doesn't it irk you that he was ready to turn on you, the ones who made him what he is?" I was grasping at straws here, trying to buy myself enough time to recover.

Tharma threw back her head in laughter. "He's not here now, is he?"

"No matter what mortal bond you think you might share with him, he will always be ours to control." Belladona's voice was cold. "You never stood a chance."

I tried to fight back, but I kept getting pounded with attacks from every angle. When they finally let up, I fell to the ground, and was given the pleasure of getting the wind knocked out of me. My brain screamed at me to get back up, but my body wouldn't have it. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I could see the shapes of the Ancient Witches looming near me. "Just like a fly," Lilith laughed.

"They all get squashed in the end," Tharma agreed.

Belladona gave another cold, screechy laugh, and I felt the air shift as she charged what was most likely going to be the final death of me. "Say goodbye, Your Highness."

I closed my eyes, too weak to move. _At least I went out fighting,_ I thought, already half-delirious from the loss of strength. _I just wish my friends would know what happened to me… that I didn't just disappear off the face of the realms forever…_

I braced myself for the impact, but it never came.

Instead, I felt the energy from the attack go _around_ me, like I had a shield protecting me. But how? My magic levels were so low I wasn't even sure I could change my hair color, let alone throw up a protection shield.

From somewhere high above me, I heard Lilith give what sounded like a strangled gasp.

"What is this?" Belladona exclaimed in outrage.

I struggled to lift my head to see what they were talking about, but my muscles felt like overcooked spaghetti. The most I could do was shift my head the tiniest bit to the side, giving me a view of a pair of dark purple boots and the bottom edge of a long burgundy coat.

My eyes widened.

"Don't tell me you three are surprised to see me," a familiar smug voice drawled. I managed to lift my head a little more, and saw the last person I ever expected to find standing there, a shield radiating from the palm of his hand – the very one that kept Belladona's magic from ending me.

"Now," Baltor continued, a trademark smirk on his lips. "Where were we?"

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Kyree Winx, you _so_ called it! Like there was ever any doubt he was going to just let her run off on her own. ;-)**

**Before anyone says anything, a word about the names of the Ancestral Witches: yes, I know Darcy's counterpart is supposed to be Lyssliss (spelling?). But seriously, what kind of a name is that? Lilith is close enough, sounds better (like an actual _name_, instead of just a mishmash of syllables), and makes sense: witch of darkness, crazy demon goddess... So we went with Lilith instead. Don't hate.**

**Only three chapters left! My God, it's just starting to hit me that this story is so close to being over... *tear* But don't worry; there's still plenty of important stuff coming up. No loose ends are left untied, I promise. So look forward to that, and then to E's and my next collaboration, a short(er) fic about Baltor's trial with the Magix Council. (Intrigued? You should be. ;-)**

**_Adieu_ for now, darlings!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Belladona's face was livid – or at least, it would have been, if she were capable of making facial expressions besides a cold sneer. So it just looked kind of ridiculous. "You dare come back here, Baltor? You dare turn the power that _we_ gave you against us?"

He shrugged, looking bored. "I dare. Guess the whole giving me free will thing kind of came back to bite you, eh Bella?"

My eyes widened as the leader of the Ancient Witch clan literally _screeched_ with anger; something that sounded like nails on a chalkboard combined with the high-pitched squealing of bats (ergo, _not_ pleasant). "You will _not_ address me like that!"  
"Really? What are you going to do; use that wrinkled excuse for a face to scare me to death?"

She opened her mouth as if to shriek again, but Lilith extended her arm in warning. "Calm yourself, sister dear," she said in a sickly sweet voice that sent chills down my spine. Her eyes were burning in rage as she turned back to Baltor. "So our little puppy has grown up and decided he wants to bite the hand that fed him? How cute."

"That's all I ever was to you – something to use. You preyed on my weaknesses, let me take the fall for your crimes, and all the while you treated me like I was barely better than dirt under your shoe." His voice was steady and even, but there was no mistaking the deep-rooted anger behind it. "_That_ is why I'm here now. _That_ was your mistake."

"And her?" Tharma cackled. "I suppose she's just here of her own accord?"

They laughed, and I saw something flicker in Baltor's eyes; they'd hit a nerve. My eyes narrowed. "I _am_ here of my own accord,"I snapped. "Just like Baltor, I've got a score to settle with you three." I wasn't quite sure why I was defending him, after everything, but as I knew firsthand, the Ancient Witches liked to hit below the belt. No one deserved that, not even Baltor.

"And I suppose the two of you falling into bed together had nothing to do with any of it." My cheeks burned. _How the hell did they know about that?_ "I'll admit, you've got strange tastes, Baltor," Belladona continued, fully recovered from her earlier fit of anger. She seemed to ignore me completely. "First that psychology student, and now the princess of Sparx? Are you only attracted to women whose lives you're bound to ruin?"

His jaw clenched. "You seem to be forgetting your own culpability in both of those situations," he shot back, looking so tightly wound that he might shatter with a hard enough tap. "Simone was an unfortunate casualty of a war _you_ started, the same war that took everything from Bloom. You're the ones that ruined their lives, not me. I was only ever just a pawn in your game. But that ends now."

"Really?" Belladona said, sounding amused. "You and what army?"

"I don't need an army to take you three down."

"That's what your girlfriend said," Tharma laughed. "And you see what happened to her."

It became apparent that I was still lying on the ground, covered in cuts and bruises, watching things play out. Despite my muscles screaming in protest, I managed to lift myself up off the ground and stand. My hands were shaking, and I balled them into fists. "I may have been down, but don't count me out just yet."

"We're terrified," Lilith chuckled. "A broken princess and a former pawn that doesn't know when to quit. That hardly sounds like a fight."

Baltor gave a cold smirk that reminded me of when I'd first met him. "You forget, when I became your so-called 'pawn', you gave me your magic to fight with. You really think you're so tough? Let's see how you like a dose of your own medicine."

Before I could blink, he threw a bright blue field of fire from his hands and sent it directly into their eyes. The shrieks of the Ancient Witches made my ears burn in agony, but Baltor seemed to enjoy the noise.

Belladona was the first to recover, and I felt her aura around us grow dark. "You," she said, her voice like icicles, "just made a big mistake."

A fireball sparked to life in Baltor's hands. "What're you going to do about it, old woman?"

The world exploded in fire, the sheer force of it knocking me back against a wall (a wall of what, exactly, I wasn't sure; it seemed like we were in a large cavern). Wind rushed in my ears, dampening my hearing, and even as the fires dulled, there were still bright spots dancing in my vision. By the time they cleared, Baltor and the Ancestresses were locked in combat, far too focused on each other to worry about me.

_You've got to help him,_ a voice in the back of my head urged. Even if this was Baltor's fault, and even if I did hate him, this final face-down with the witches was between _them_ and _me_. No extra pieces of the equation required. I had to figure out how to get him away. Maybe if I used a sleeping spell, but those usually took a good amount of power…

I was pulled from my thoughts by a strong force that seemed to be tugging at me. It was so sudden it almost knocked me off my feet. I jerked my head to the left, thinking for a moment that Baltor had come to drag me into the fight, but no one was there.

I arched an eyebrow, confused, but a second later I felt it again. It reminded me somewhat of the feeling that had brought me to the portal back on Sparx, but this was slightly different – softer, gentler, without the burning edge of dark magic.

Almost of their own accord, my wings started beating, taking me away from Baltor and the Ancestresses and towards the direction of the calling.

_Baltor can handle this,_ I rationalized to myself. _He's more powerful than I am by God only knows how much. And whatever's down here, I might not get another chance to see it again._

There was no way to know how far I'd gone, though I'd left behind the sounds of battle a while ago. My nerves were tingling in anticipation, when abruptly the connection was cut. I pursed my lips, adding a tiny bit more strength to the ball of light in my hands to see more clearly.

And then gasped.

Statues. Dozens, maybe hundreds of them; all of people, all made of stone. And too incredibly life-like to be artistic creations.

I suddenly found I was having trouble breathing. My chest ached like it wanted to collapse in on itself. _Is this what happened to the people of Sparx? Turned into life-size lawn ornaments?_ The idea was almost too terrible to process.

I let myself fall to the ground and looked around. Most of the faces seemed to be frozen in agony or fear. They ranged in age from an old-looking man to a woman shielding a young child in her arms. I reached out and trailed my hand across the face of the little boy. The rock was cool to the touch, but not freezing like solid stone should be. For a moment, I feared that the rock was just an outer layer like the ice that froze the prisoners in Omega; that not far underneath was a living, conscious human being, trapped for who knew how long.

I looked around for something to test my theory on, but aside from the human figurines, there wasn't anything that I could use. I didn't want to test it on one of the figures for fear I would kill the possible living conscious inside it. Slowly, I made my way around the sculptures, trying to find something to use; maybe a small animal, or something that had fallen from the statue, like a doll or a bracelet or a crown…

_Crown_.

I smacked my hand to my head, hoping to knock some of the stupidity out of it. If these statues were once the people of Sparx, and if everyone who was on the planet during the attack was here, that meant my parents had to be somewhere too.

I took to the sky, figuring I'd get a better view from above. My eyes fell on a ledge some ten feet above the main cavern, and I decided to check it out. The man I landed in front of looked well dressed, and had a row of important-looking pins on his jacket. I recognized one as the crest of the Sparx Royal Court, and I couldn't help but grin. "So you're all the nobles," I said to myself, slowly walking around the few dozen people gathered on the ledge. "But where's your King and Queen?"

As I turned my head, I caught sight of a decent-sized crack in the wall, not far behind a few statues that almost looked to be hiding it. After a quick glance around to make sure I still wasn't being followed (I wasn't; Baltor and the witches must've had quite a few issues to hash out), I slipped behind the statues and into the narrow passage.

It was a short walk before it opened up again. The new chamber was much smaller than the previous one, and much darker. I lit a ball of fire in my palm and sent it out to illluminate the space.

What I saw made my heart stop.

It contained a single statue; a man in regal-looking battle armor, reaching for a sword that was a fingertip's-length away. Slowly, as though in a dream, I stepped forward so I could get a good look at the man's face. Unlike the other statues I'd seen, the look on his face was that of pure determination as he reached for the sword.

Oritel.

I sucked in a breath of cold air. After all the wondering, dreaming, and fruitless searching, I was finally face to face with the man that had fathered me. _Somehow, I thought it would feel different when I finally found them. And where's Miriam?_

Tentatively, I reached out and placed my hand on his, wanting to feel something, _anything_, to make me feel closer to him. At first nothing happened, and my spirits dipped, but just as I went to move my hand away, I felt something like a spark of magic jolt through my fingertips. The stone underneath them felt slightly warmer, in case I thought I'd just imagined it.

Underneath all my hesitations, a rush of fierce longing welled up in my chest. "Dad," I said softly, using the word to describe him for the first time. My voice echoed off the walls and sounded more confident than I actually felt. "I'm going to get you out of there. No matter what I have to do."

Magic surged into my palms, flaring brightly and casting flickering shadows on the walls. I didn't even try to think of a spell, just focused on channeling all my energy. _I can do this… I can do this… I can do this…_

A searing lightning-bolt of pain shot through my head, causing me to lose my concentration and sending me tumbling to the ground, the walls darkening without my magic to illuminate them. I'd barely had time to catch my breath before it happened again, this time with such an intensity that it made my whole body shudder.

I felt winded and exhausted, though I'd barely done anything. What the hell was happening to me?

_Bloom…_

I inhaled sharply at the voice in my mind, faint but oh so familiar.

_Baltor_.

There was another twinge of pain, but it was less intense this time, allowing me to stand up again. I took a few deep breaths, bracing one hand against a nearby wall, trying to slow my racing heart.

Of course – this wasn't my pain, but his; I was simply experiencing it through the Dragon Fire connection. This had happened once before, in fact, when he got caught by some guards on Cumulus, and it was actually kind of useful then, because it let me know he needed help. (Of course, I hadn't let him live that down for days.)

But I distinctly remembered getting mad and pushing him out of my head when we'd fought on Eraklyon, and since then he hadn't been in my mind. I'd figured that I'd somehow managed to sever the connection – and good riddance, after everything he'd done.

The pain through the Dragon Fire connection was dulling out, a surprising sign that Baltor was giving up on the fight. I could feel a lot of defeat and sorrow… and regret. _That_ emotion killed me the most. In that moment, I couldn't deny that a part of me wanted to go back and help him. Even after finding out how he'd lied to me, those things he'd said and done… it couldn't _all_ have been a lie, could it?

I shook my head. _Get a hold of yourself, Bloom,_ a voice in the back of my head spoke up. _He's a no-good, double-crossing con artist who tried to _kill_ you! If you let him in again he'll just break your heart._

…But what if he didn't?

However star-crossed our romance, I'd fallen hard and fast for him. Feelings like that didn't just disappear overnight, no matter what stupid things the other person did.

As the dull pounding in my head faded even more, I knew that if I did do anything, it'd have to be quickly, or it would be too late. I closed my eyes, desperately wishing for a sign or something, anything to make the decision for me. This was just too much pressure.

_But the answer's obvious, isn't it? You just have to admit that that's what you want – no matter how much of a risk it is._

Taking a deep breath, I turned back to Oritel, staring into his unseeing eyes one more time. I stepped forward and kissed his forehead, the stone cool under my lips. "I'm sorry," I whispered, barely loud enough to be audible.

Then, without sparing a second look backwards, I turned around and zoomed out of the cave as fast as my wings could carry me.

* * *

I heard them before I saw them. "Good help is _so_ hard to come by these days," Tharma sneered, as I re-entered the original cavern from behind the Ancestresses. I could just make out a dark figure like a person lying on the ground beneath them. Even without a good viewpoint, I knew Baltor was in bad shape. I bit my lip, a fresh wave of anxiety racing through me.

"Agreed," Lilith's cold voice added. "Guess it's time to clean house."

Belladona's hands glowed unnervingly with blue-white magic, her piercing laugh ringing in the air. "We should have taken care of _this_ loose end a long time ago, sisters. How fortunate to get the chance after all."

"One might even call it fate," Lilith cackled, and they all joined in.

"Wow, can you guys go five _seconds_ without the annoying maniacal laughs? I really don't feel like that's a lot to ask. Or maybe," I continued, slowly hovering forward into their line of sight, "you should take all this cosmic power and go rob a pharmacy for some throat lozenges. It sounds like you could use them."

All three of them looked fairly surprised, like they'd suddenly remembered that I was the one that had been there first. Of course, Belladona was the first to recover. "Well, well, look who decided to rejoin her own battle. Come to die with your lover, my dear?"

"You wish. If you want my blood, Belladona, you're going to have to keep waiting."

"Really?" If I hadn't known better, I'd have said she sounded genuinely curious. "Have you forgotten that you barely have any power left? That you almost died at our hands less than an hour ago and that Baltor – who has beaten you on several occasions – is no better? This is _our_ land, Princess, and _our_ revenge to finally be accomplished. You have no right to be here, nor will you leave here alive."

I slowly let the power build up in my hands, doing my best to keep it from sparking out my fingertips. Her rant had bought me a good amount of time, and when I saw Baltor stir I knew it was the time to act. "While I acknowledge your _right_, I refuse to acknowledge that it _is_ right."

With that, I finally let the energy go, and the world around me lit up like the Fourth of July.

Sparks of fire were everywhere, with a loud whistling sound as a few balls of fire zoomed around; and best of all, the witches were totally confused. Distraction in place, I took to the air, doing my best to avoid the spells I'd set off. Within moments I was at Baltor's side, taking in his physical state.

He didn't look quite as bad as I thought he'd be; I'd give him that. While there were bruises and gashes visible where his clothes were torn, there wasn't much blood (unless there was internal damage, but I didn't even want to _think_ about that possibility). His eyes – which had only been half open, weakly trying to follow the conversation – widened when he saw me, although the gold irises still contained a look of indifference; like if he was going to die, he wasn't afraid of it. It sent shivers down my spine.

"Bloom?" His voice was faint, strange to my ears. "…You came back." His face contorted in pain, and then his whole body went slack, like speaking had taken whatever last reserves of energy he had.

I knelt down by his side, any reservations about the choice I'd made having disappeared completely. "Of course I did," I said reassuringly, placing my hand over his to take a quick inventory of his power levels. _Not great… and I can't imagine I'm much better after that trick I just pulled…_

Subtly, I pushed a little bit of magic from my fingertips, knowing his pride would never let him accept a boost from me otherwise. It wasn't much, but it was something, and I could see it start to work almost immediately. "Why are you still here? Why didn't you just leave when you had the chance? They're nothing like the Trix, Bloom; you don't stand a chance."

Despite being worn out, I smirked. "Funny how you told me that when I fought you a thousand times, but I still ended up beating you right out of Magix."

"This isn't funny."

"You're right; it's not. Come on." I looped my arm around his shoulder and helped him sit up. "We have to get out of here."

He took a few shallow breaths, as though the small movement had taken a lot of work. "Why?" he asked.

"_Why_?" I wanted to hit him upside the head. "How about that if we don't, we'll end up as statues like the rest of Sparx?"

"Not that," he replied, sounding (to my relief) a bit annoyed. "Why… why did you come back?"

I inhaled sharply. "You really want to do this now? _Now_, when we're on the verge of death?"

"That hardly sounds like an answer."

I was debating whether or not we had enough time for me to tell him _anything_ just to get him to shut up (so far, it was looking like a resolute 'not') when a giant icicle seemed to fall out of the sky from out of nowhere, landing about two inches from crushing me. Looking up, I saw Belladona seething in rage, my fireworks show having disappeared into thin air. "Not a half-bad show, Princess," she said mockingly. "But now it's time for the main event."

I barely had enough time to take to the air before I was dodging a torrent of ice crystals, momentarily thanking the Ancestresses for giving Baltor the ability to fly (if not, this would've been a hell of a lot harder, since he still couldn't seem to support himself). "Any bright ideas on how to get us out of here?"

"Why are you looking at me?" he responded, sounding much more like himself again. "How did you get here?"

"A portal just appeared in the ruins of the palace."

He clucked his tongue. "Silly Bloom, didn't your parents ever warn you about going into strange places?"

As much as I was happy that he seemed to be restored to full health, I was having a hard time not slapping him for not taking this seriously. "Yes in hindsight I shouldn't have just jumped without looking, but that is so not the point right now! How did _you_ get here?"

"I have the Ancestresses' magic inside of me. It works sort of like a GPS tracker, allowing me to find them regardless of circumstances – but it only works one way."

I quickly pulled up a shield to block a lightning bolt aimed at his chest. "Wonderful."

"What about another portal?" he asked.

"Do _you_ know how to make one?" I shot back. "That's advanced stuff. We never got that far at Alfea – maybe because our schooling kept getting interrupted by power-crazed dark beings hell-bent on taking over the dimension." He chuckled, then winced, his abdomen contracting slightly. "And even if I did know how, I don't think either of us has the magic that it would take to produce one." Lilith's dark energy rings shot up from below us, forming what looked like a cage. I quickly tugged on his arm and yanked us away from the path of trajectory, lacking the energy to dispel her magic.

"How much do you know about that Enchantix of yours, Bloom?"

I blinked. "_What_ about this situation makes you think it's a good time to talk about my Enchantix, of all things?"

"What's the most significant part of an Enchantix? Fairy dust. It doesn't drain along with the rest of your magic levels unless you're specifically using it, and its magical properties are innumerable."

My lips formed an O shape, mind racing. "Do you… Are you saying you think I could make a portal with my fairy dust?"

"I'm saying I think it's worth a shot. It's not like we have many other options."

For a moment I was elated, but then I quickly came back down. "My Enchantix is incomplete," I said, biting my lip. "I couldn't miniaturize like the others. What if this is the same way?"

"I repeat: what other options do we have?"

"I'd say you have precisely… _none_." Lilith's voice reached my ears, and before I could even register it Baltor and I were thrown back against the cavern wall. I winced as I felt a few cuts on my back open up again.

"Bloom," he hissed. It sounded like the hit had hurt him more than it hurt me. "Do _something_."

Almost of their own accord, my hands reached up to my collarbone, feeling the little heart-shaped blue bottle materialize like it was floating to the surface of a pool of water. Its weight in my hands felt far greater than actuality, with the sudden possible importance of the contents inside it.

"Fairy dust?" Tharma sneered. "What good do you think that's going to do, little princess? The depths of our magic are far greater than that sparkly powder."

I took a deep breath, buoyed by the sudden sting through the Dragon Fire. There was no time to lose here.

And then, before I could over-think it or talk myself out of this – without any real clue what I was doing – I took the bottle and smashed it against the wall.

It exploded in a shower of blue sparks, fizzling like fireworks. For a second, nothing happened, and I worried that I'd just depleted our last hope of fighting back for nothing. Then slowly, a swirling mass like a portal started to form.

_It actually worked… At least, I think it did. But there's no way to know for sure – without going through it._

Belladona's screech of anger brought me back to the present. "Sisters! Don't let them get away!"

Somehow, Baltor's hand was clasped in mine; I had no recollection of which one of us had done that. "Sorry," I called over my shoulder, reaching my hand out towards the portal. "We've all had our fun, but now it's time for us to go. This is truly a lovely place you've got here. Enjoy your eternal punishment!"

Lilith growled – actually _growled_. (Someone's got anger management issues…) "Get back here! How can this be? We are the rulers of this plane, and nothing happens without _our_ approval. And we do not allow you to leave!"

"Well isn't that a pity," Baltor said, smugness evident in his voice. "Because it looks like we _are_ leaving. Nice to see you again, ladies. Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious; I quit."

And with that, we tumbled through the portal.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

The first thing I was aware of was the cold. The second was that somehow, thankfully, I was out of my Enchantix and back in that snowsuit (although I couldn't for the life of me remember de-transforming). The third was the sensation of a pair of arms wrapped around me.

And when I blinked the snowflakes out of my eyelashes and my vision became clearer, the latter became all I could focus on when I realized just whose arms they were.

"Sleeping beauty finally awakens." Baltor's voice tickled my ear. "And just in time. I was starting to get worried."

I groaned and pressed a hand to my forehead, trying to dull out the pain. "I feel like hell."

"Not surprising. That was quite a stunt you pulled. What in the realms made you think of _smashing_ the bottle instead of, oh I don't know, just sprinkling it like you would normally?"

"Don't lecture me," I protested, wincing as my headache increased. "I was on the spot; we're lucky I was even able to do it. Or did you forget where we'd be right now otherwise – back at the mercy of the Ancestresses?"

I felt him tense underneath me. "Trust me," he said, in a low, tight voice. "I haven't forgotten."

I sucked in a breath of cold air, realizing that I'd just hit on what was obviously a sore spot, and decided not to press the issue further. Instead I took the opportunity to look at our surroundings, taking in the familiar ice and snow everywhere. "We're still on Sparx?"

"That's where the portal dropped us. You passed out almost immediately after we came through, and I didn't want to risk moving you."

"What's my damage?"

"Nothing, as far as I can see. You'll be sore as hell for a few days, and it may take your powers a bit longer than usual to regenerate, but other than that you're fine. And you should be thankful. That could've ended a lot worse than it did."

A cold wind blew past, taking the place of the conversation. I shivered involuntarily, and felt Baltor tighten his grip on me, guiding my head to rest in the crook of his neck. If I wasn't so worn out, I more than likely would've pushed him away, but I didn't. The old gesture was comforting, even if I didn't want to admit it. Instead, I took a deep breath and nuzzled my cheek into the familiar leather of his jacket.

After a moment, a thought occurred to me. "Aren't you freezing?" I asked, my fingers reaching up to finger the lapel of the jacket. "Are you wearing _anything_ to protect you from the cold? Are you even using a heat spell?"

He chuckled lowly. "Don't worry about me."

"Please, you could lose a hand in this weather." A small smirk crossed my face. "And you're barely a match for me with the two you have."

"Rewriting history is not an admirable trait, my dear." What looked like the beginning of an actual smile crept into the corners of his mouth, but it was gone with the next icy breeze. For what seemed like the first time ever, I saw him hesitate, as if unsure of what he was about to say. "…I know you have your reasons to hate me, but I promise you, things are not what they seem. And I can explain everything, if you'll let me."

Despite my thick snowsuit, the next gust of wind seemed to chill me to the bone. I carefully extricated myself from his grip, fighting the urge to groan at the loss of contact (and thus, shared body heat). "So we're talking about this."

"Considering the last time we didn't talk you ran off to face the Ancestresses and nearly got us both killed? Yes, I feel we should talk about this."

I sighed, my breath coming out in a white mist in front of my face (damn, was it ever cold here). "Alright. You said you have explanations; let's hear them."

"After you left the cave in Magix, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what happened, what you could've possibly asked the book that would have caused you to react like that. The thing that kept getting me stuck was the book's purpose: to answer any question truthfully. There's no shortage of things I've done that you don't know about–" here my eyebrows arched involuntarily, but I said nothing– "but nothing that would've caused that reaction. And then it hit me." He paused. "Your freshman year, the Trix cursed it to make you think you were a witch, right? But a book like that – anyone could have come along and used it before you got to it, and if their spell was discovered, it would be for nothing. So I tested my theory, and sure enough, I was right."

I bit my bottom lip. "And… what was this theory?" I asked, almost unsure whether I wanted to hear the answer.

"The spell they used was a curse specific to you. If anyone else used the book, it would function normally, but anything you asked it, it would give you a false answer designed to crush your spirits. And why would they bother going to the trouble of taking it off, when odds were you'd never see that book again?" He chuckled darkly. "Not that I think they'd care anyways."

I let the information connect in my head. In a weird way, it did make sense. Back when we were all in school (and the teachers thought our hatred was just a normal Alfea-Cloud Tower rivalry), the Trix didn't have as many resources to keep an eye on us. They wouldn't have known exactly when I planned on going with Sky to get the book, so they would've had to make sure the spell would last, and was specifically coded to me and me alone (which led to the more than slightly scary thought of how they'd gotten a hold of my DNA for the spell… but that was something to think about later). With their Whisperian Crystals supplying them with extra power… it wasn't that surprising to think the spell had lasted for three years. And it wasn't as though Griffin would check the whole library for spells – especially spells targeted at fairies, who in those days would only be wandering Cloud Tower in the afterlife.

Still… a part of me felt like it was almost too good to be true, especially without the book here to verify it. "All I have to believe this is your word. How am I supposed to know this isn't just another lie?"

"What did you ask the book, Bloom?" he asked me, completely sidestepping my question.

I shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of his stare, looking away. Despite the cold, my cheeks were starting to feel very warm. "…If you had lied to me."

When I dared to look back at him, he didn't seem surprised; more like he'd gotten a confirmation of something he'd known all along. "Glad to see you trusted me so much," he said wryly.

I sucked in a breath of cold air, suddenly feeling very small. "It's not like you have the best track record… and Sky had gotten me all worked up…" I trailed off, realizing how feeble my excuses must have sounded. "You're right," I said finally, hanging my head. "I should have had more faith in you."

Baltor sighed. "I suppose I don't blame you. Especially if that moronic prince was involved." A dark look crossed his face. "I should have been the one to get those spells, just like I should have checked all the books we took for tracking chips and other spells; after all the trouble I caused, I'm sure the Magix Council would've gone to great lengths to keep them safe."

I smirked a little, remembering Ms Faragonda complaining about all the money the school had to spend on new locks for the restricted vault. "I'm sure we would've figured it out when an army the size of a small country came breaking down the door to our hotel room."

A small smile crossed his face. "We could've taken them."

For a moment, it was almost like nothing had happened; that we were back in some hotel room on some random realm, the day's dirty work behind us, bantering companionably to pass time. But then reality set in, in the form of a giant gust of wind that swirled up some of the snow around us, making it look like we were caught in a blizzard. When the snow cleared, he was staring at me again, the look in his eyes unreadable.

"What?" I asked finally.

He looked away. "Where did you go? When I was fighting the Ancestresses, and you disappeared… what were you looking for?"

A cold, hard knot of guilt settled in my stomach. I swallowed hard, my tongue feeling stuck to the roof of my mouth. Oritel's stone face flashed before my eyes, almost seeming disapproving, although that was impossible; he was just a statue now, features frozen the same way forever.

_And _I _left him like that. Some daughter I am._

Although I didn't say anything, I watched as something passed through his eyes like understanding. For once, I was thankful for his ability to read my thoughts through the Dragon Fire. Maybe if I just never said out loud what had happened in that cave, I could pretend it hadn't happened. "But you came back."

I looked down, picking at a stray thread hanging off the seam of the snowsuit. "I did."

There was silence for a moment. "If you thought I'd just been using you all this time… why did you help me?"

I bit my lip. In the moment, there hadn't been much time to stop and rationalize what I was doing; I was too busy just trying to get out of there alive. But there was nothing but time now, which meant confronting everything I'd tried so hard not to think about.

What was it that I'd said to convince myself? _You just have to admit that that's what you want – no matter how much of a risk it is._

My feelings for Baltor were nothing at all like what I'd felt for Sky. Sky was an anchor, a lighthouse in the storm; steady, comforting, and absolutely _safe_. Baltor, on the other hand, made me feel like I was free-falling without a parachute. (Take a guess which one _Teen Fairy_ said true love should feel like.)

But honestly, that scared the crap out of me. These kinds of feelings weren't just teenage puppy love; even when I'd thought he'd told me nothing but lies, I'd still chosen him over what had basically been my dream for the past three years. The thought that another person could have that kind of incontrovertible hold on me was more than a little terrifying. And he didn't exactly come without baggage…

"Bloom?" His voice brought me out of my head and back to freezing reality. I saw that his expression was cool, as though he'd already anticipated my answer, and it wasn't good. "I didn't mean to assume anything. I should've guessed that–"

Before he could continue, I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him.

In that moment, I could understand why people sometimes relapsed into bad habits, even after they'd broken them and had been living without them for a while. Despite the short amount of that'd passed (a couple of days at most), that tingling feeling in the pit of my stomach felt like it'd been mising for years. And now that it was back, it was intensified, like I'd never really realized how good it actually felt.

My lips were still tingling when he pulled back, heart racing like I'd been shot up with a thousand volts of electricity. "I can't do this," he said abruptly, and the world seemed to slide out from under me. "I love you, Bloom–" and despite everything, I felt a shiver of pleasure at hearing him say it– "but what kind of future do we have together? I can't ask you to give up your life for me."

"You're right," I said, and his face dropped. "But," I continued, my fingers reaching up to trace a pattern on his cheek, "how will we know what kind of future it is if we don't try? And who says I'd be giving up my life?"

He chuckled, a little darkly. "Let's see; giving up admiration from the entire magical universe just to stay with a criminal? That kind of sounds like giving up your life."

"Well to me it doesn't," I insisted. "Look, I know half of the problems in this relationship are my fault. And I want to fix that. If you want me to, that is."

Baltor sighed again, reaching his hand up to mine and intertwining our fingers. "There's nothing I want more in the world," he said softly, and I shivered again. "But there are things to think about. Your friends, your family on Earth, and all the people on the planets I overtook. They're hardly going to welcome me into society with open arms, even with you to back me up."

"So? Somehow I find it hard to believe you care that much about what other people think."

"But you do." He made a move to pull his hand away, but I squeezed it tightly, refusing to let go. "The only way we'd ever be able to get peace is if we went back to living on the run. But I can't ask you to do something like that for me."

"Why not?" I challenged.

"You'd hate it. Think about it, love. Would you really want to live like that forever?" I hesitated.

It wasn't like I didn't love Baltor – hell, I'd given up regaining my planet for the guy. It was what he brought: a whole new life, people judging me in a whole different way, the very real idea of some of my closest friends never speaking to me again. Having to fight against the courts on countless planets, explaining over and over again that Baltor wasn't a bad person…

Yet at the same time, there was something about it that excited me. Getting to start a brand new chapter in my life with someone I loved and who loved me in return. Knowing that even if I lost a few friends along the way I'd realize they weren't true friends to begin with, making those who trusted me all the more important.

The more I thought about it, the more I kind of liked the idea. Settling down somewhere, not having to worry about saving the universe every day, getting married, having a family…

"Well," I said slowly, "it would be a change. But that doesn't mean I'm not willing to try it. We could go to Earth; no one would bother us there."

"And if they did?"

"Then we'd go to another, smaller planet, one you didn't get to last year on your stealing spree. And if that doesn't work, we try another one. We'll make it work." I wriggled my way back onto his lap, placing a hand on either side of his jaw. "Face it: you're not getting rid of me that easily."

He laughed. "Believe me, I don't want to." His tone grew serious. "I just don't want you to regret this later on."

"This is my choice," I stated, looking him square in the eye. "I know what I'm getting into. And I can't think of anyone I'd rather get into it with."

His eyes danced with amusement. "You truly are one of a kind, love," he said, before leaning down to kiss me again.

"I know." I grinned. "Now, I'm going to assume that since you aren't using a spell to block out this freezing weather – which I still think is stupid, for the record – you have enough energy to transport us out of here."

Baltor gave a familiar smirk, and relief flooded my veins. "Indeed. Anywhere in particular you have in mind? Somewhere on Earth, preferably in the middle of the desert?"

"Solaria."

He raised an eyebrow. "Bloom… are you sure that's a good idea?"

I nodded slowly. "Before we start… whatever it is we're starting, I need to tell the girls. Whether they support me or not, they deserve to know the truth. Come on," I added, when I could see he wasn't convinced. "Flora was alright when I told her."

"That may be, but she seemed the most… understanding, out of your friends. What about Stella or Layla? How do you think _they're_ going to take it?"

"If they love me, they're going to accept it, even if it takes time. And if they don't…" I paused, biting my lip. "I guess they really aren't my friends."

Baltor gave me a sad smile and kissed my forehead. "The choice is yours, darling. Whatever it is, I'm with you."

I smiled a little. "Then let's get this show on the road."

* * *

**Author's Note: ****One chapter to go! It honestly hasn't hit me yet that this story is basically _over_. But fear not, friends - there is still one more chapter, full of all kinds of goodness (including the tying of several loose ends, I promise).**

**Are all you Sparxshippers appeased now? ;-) E and I went back and forth for _forever_ on how to work that plotline with Sky and the book, because when we actually got that far in the plot, we realized our original idea was full of plotholes. ****And then, we started running into all kinds of _other _plotholes with our new, different ideas. Finally, we ended up settling on this, which does make sense, I think - I hope you agree. So yes, all of you who thought he wasn't lying were correct. As if we'd ever give you anything different - really, people.**

**That's all for now, folks!**

**- Authoress and ember**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

"Alright Bloom, now that you've dragged us all here with your secretive messages, do you mind telling us what's going on?"

Stella's tone was more playful than anything as she took a seat on one of the large chairs in the library. The girls and I were in one of the smaller alcoves next to a large bay window. The view suggested it was going to be a warm, sunny day on Solaria, as per usual.

Now if only it would end that way after this.

"Don't tell me you found another threat to the magical dimension on your world tour, and now we have to go stop it." Musa laughed, and the rest of the girls did too (I mean really, it did happen a lot).

I just smiled and bit my lip, nervously fiddling with the diamond hanging on my neck. _Breathe, Bloom. It's going to be okay._

From between Layla and Tecna, Flora caught my eye and gave me a small, reassuring smile. It was comforting to remember that I did have one person in my corner now, when I was about to do what was quite possibly one of the craziest things I'd ever done.

_Are you alright, love?_ Baltor's voice echoed in my mind. _You can still change your mind, you know. I won't think less of you._

Despite everything, I smiled slightly. _No, I have to do this. But thank you anyways._

_ As you wish. Remember, I'm right here if you need me._

"Bloom? Hello? Anyone home?" Layla snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Where'd you go, girl? You looked like you were in a trance or something."

I forced a laugh, my tongue feeling as heavy as lead. "Just distracted…" I took a deep breath, tugging on my necklace again in a way that had become very force of habit.

Stella's eyes zeroed in on the diamond. "Whoa, girl, that's some serious bling. Where'd you get _that_? And will you take me there?"

"Stel, do you ever stop thinking about shopping?" Flora snapped. "Bloom has something she wants to tell us. Let her say it." She looked to me encouragingly.

"Okay…" I started. "There's really no easy way to say this – to say _any_ of this – so I'm just going to be blunt. I don't know how you're going to take it, and I won't blame you if you don't like it, but know from the start that I wouldn't be telling you any of it if it wasn't real, and important to me."

Stella reached out and put her hand on my wrist. "Bloom, you're starting to scare me. What's going on with you?"

"You know how I said that Baltor died on Tides?" There was a slow chorus of confused nods. I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping the arms of my chair tightly. _Like ripping off a Band-Aid_, I told myself. "…He kind of didn't."

It got way too quiet for my liking. Hesitantly, I opened one eye, taking in the facial expressions of all my friends: Tecna and Stella's mouths were hanging open, Musa's eyes were wide in absolute shock, and Layla looked dazed. The only person without a reaction was Flora, who was just nodding at me, as though confirming something she already had an idea about.

"Are you being serious here, B?" Musa finally asked. Her voice was hesitant, as though she really didn't want to believe what I was saying.

Slowly, I nodded. "Yes. Baltor's alive."

Layla stood up abruptly. "Where is he? How fast can we find him? It shouldn't take too long to get the Specialists out here with a ship, and then we can go. I swear, once I get my hands on that son of a bitch I'll–"

"Hold on, Layla," Tecna said, reaching up to catch her wrist. "Bloom… how do you know this?"

"Did he attack you?" Stella asked, her face paling considerably.

I sighed. While I'd expected this reaction, I was kind of hoping it wouldn't come to this. "I know because… I never killed him in the first place. We faked the whole thing on Tides."

Layla – who'd sat back down at Tecna's request – was now looking at me suspiciously. "…Did you just say _we_?"

"…Yes. We."

Musa crossed her arms over her chest. "So you're telling us you two planned that whole thing? _Together_?"

"It's not what you think!" I quickly insisted, holding my hands out in an attempted peace gesture. "It wasn't like I was plotting with him the whole time. I really was going to kill him when I went in there."

"Then why didn't you?"

I cringed at the sharp tone of Stella's voice, but I knew there was no going back now. "Just as I was about to finish him off, Baltor offered me a deal." I looked over the faces of my five best friends as I spoke, mostly so I wouldn't have to make eye contact as I said the next sentence. "If I helped him get back the spells he'd lost, he would lead me to my parents and set them free. And afterwards, he would leave the magical dimension for good."

Tecna raised an eyebrow. "And you believed him? After everything he's done?"

"I gave him a chance. It was…"

_A risk that needed to be taken for the sake of my planet,_ Baltor filled in for me in the back of my head.

"A risk that needed to be taken for the sake of my planet," I repeated, trying to keep the smirk off my face. "And for my parents. If there was even a possibility that I could find them, I owed it to them to try it."

"And how did that work out for you?" Layla asked. She was visibly upset, but seemed to be trying her best to hold it back. "I haven't heard anything about the miraculous reappearance of King Oritel and Queen Miriam. Did you even find them?"

I took a deep breath, that little guilty feeling mounting in the pit of my stomach. "Yes," I said quietly, my eyes focusing on the intricate rug beneath my feet. "I did."

Another silence fell over us, but unlike the last one, I could feel the sorrow that had to be radiating off me. "I found them – and the rest of the population of Sparx – trapped in Obsidian with the Ancient Witches. I tried fighting them, but… I lost. Badly."

"Oh sweetie." Flora stood up and wrapped her arms around me in a comforting hug. "I'm sorry."

A small smile crept its way onto my face, and I hugged her back. "It's okay," I said quietly, even though I didn't fully believe it myself. "I don't think there's anything we can do; at least not right now. Maybe one day with a good attack strategy we can try again, but in the meantime they're just too powerful."

Musa was playing with the hem of her shirt, looking slightly uncomfortable. "This whole battle thing with the Ancestresses… was Baltor with you?"

"Yes."

"But that doesn't make sense," Tecna insisted. "Why would the Ancient Witches fight against their own creation?"

"Because he wasn't on their side anymore. He was helping me."

"Because of your deal, right?" Stella chimed in, anxiously twisting her bangles around her wrist.

I hesitated, remembering the way he'd appeared at just the right moment to save my life, even when I'd said all those nasty things to him. "Yes and no. It was… a little more than just that."

"Don't tell me you actually made friends with the devil," Layla scoffed, crossing one leg over the other. "Don't you remember all the horrible, awful things he's done? A man like that isn't capable of _feeling_."

A surge of anger rose up inside of me, and I gripped the chair tighter, my knuckles turning white. "You don't know him the way I do," I said finally, trying not to look her in the eye. "I know that he's done unforgivable things, but he isn't a monster." I thought of London, of sitting in that hotel room as he opened up his chest and let his heart spill out onto the floor, of the secrets I knew that would change the way I looked at everything from now on. If only there was some way to put that into words… "And believe me, he can feel."

"Why should we?" Musa countered, arching a brow. "He's lied to us countless times before; likely, whatever you think you know is just more illusions. I can't believe that you of all people would get sucked into this."

"I was not 'sucked into this'. Trust me when I say I was plenty apprehensive in the beginning."

_And seemed to run away every other week._

I rolled my eyes. _I love you, but will you _please_ shut up? This is hard enough without you putting in your two cents in the back of my head every minute._

I heard him chuckle. _Sorry, love. Go on._

"There you go again!" Tecna's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "You keep spacing out on us."

"Maybe Baltor put her under a spell," Layla said, eyeing me critically. "Like Diaspro did with Sky. It would explain why she's acting like this."

A groan escaped her lips. This was getting harder than I'd thought. "I am _not_ under a spell, you guys."

"Then why would you trust Baltor so much?"

"Flo, you've been strangely quiet," Stella said, turning to my old roommate. "What do you think of all this?"

All eyes swung to Flora, including my own. She bit her lip. "I… I believe Bloom."

"_What_?" Musa yelped. "Why?"

"Because she's got a good head on her shoulders," Flora defended. "Think of all the times we've gotten ourselves into trouble; she's always known what to do. I trust her, and her decisions." She hesitated, looking to me. "And what can I say? I'm a sucker for a good love story."

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then the room exploded.

"_Love story_?" Layla all but roared. "Bloom, _please_ tell me that Flora's been inhaling too much fertilizer or something."

I shook my head. _Thank you_, I mouthed to Flora, who shot me back a relieved smile. "I couldn't figure out a good way to say it myself. But… she's telling the truth."

"Why was _she_ the one to say it?" Musa asked suspiciously. "Flora, did you know about this?" Flora nodded. "Your best friend is shacking up with a criminal, and you don't think it's important to maybe, I don't know, _say_ something?"

"I asked her not to say anything," I said quickly, trying to take some of the heat off Flora. "And she didn't know for very long."

"Does anyone else know?" Tecna asked.

"What about poor Sky?" Layla butted in, before I could even open my mouth. "Did you even bother breaking up with him before running off with the guy responsible for _destroying_ your planet?" Every word out of her mouth felt like a poison-tipped arrow, and I couldn't help but feel that I deserved every one.

_You're not a bad person,_ Baltor said, and despite having yelled at him earlier, I was beyond grateful to hear his voice. _You did what you thought was right for you in an impossible situation. There was no way that someone wouldn't have ended up getting hurt. And besides, the Eraklyon brat didn't spend too long pining over you either,_ he reminded me.

"I can guarantee you that 'poor Sky' wasn't suffering. But yes, he knows." Despite everything, I swallowed hard, remembering his face in the library that night. "He didn't take it too well either."

"No one should," Layla insisted vehemently.

I could see the wheels in the mind turning, and my heart did a sudden somersault as I remembered something that I had previously forgotten about. When she turned to me, the look in her eyes confirmed my greatest fear. "When you came to see me a month ago… that wasn't just for sightseeing, was it?"

A sour lump of guilt stuck in the back of my throat. I forced myself to stay calm, and to look her in the eye. "No. It wasn't."

"But I don't remember anyth…" All the color seemed to drain from her face. "No. You wouldn't…"

"Layla, what are you talking about?" Musa asked, looking at the Princess of Tides curiously.

"I can't believe you!" she screamed, getting to her feet. "You used magic on me. You stole my goddamn memories. And you can _sleep_ at night?" She was shaking her head now, looking at me like I was no better than the Trix. "Maybe I never knew you at all. But I know one thing now." The look in her eyes chilled me to the bone. "You and Baltor _deserve_ each other. You're both twisted, rotten, _heartless_ people." She huffed, turning on her heel and heading towards the door.

"Layla, wait! Don't go!" Stella called.

In response, the library door slammed shut.

Musa sighed and stood up. "I'll try and talk to her." She paused to give me a half smile. "Hey, if he doesn't try to kill you and he makes you happy, then I'm glad for you, B. But it's just… surprising. To put it mildly."

Despite the odds, I smiled a little. "Thanks, Musa."

She nodded and went to find Layla.

When she was gone, I sighed and fell onto the couch where the other two had previously been sitting. Tears were stinging the back of my eyes. "What have I done?"

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and was surprised to look up and see Tecna, giving me a kind smile. "I wouldn't worry too much. You know Layla – that girl has a short fuse for a temper. But Musa will talk to her and it'll be alright."

"I've never seen her so upset," Stella remarked quietly. She saw me staring and gave an embarrassed smile. "Nothing against Baltor."

_I'm sure._

I groaned. _Will you _please_ shut up?_

Flora raised an eyebrow and smirked knowingly. "He's talking in the back of your head again, isn't he?"

The corner of my lip quirked up in a small smile. "Not talking so much as providing a running commentary on every little thing."

Stella's eyes widened. "Has he been listening the entire time?"

"More or less. Relax, Stel," I added when I saw her horrified look. "He can't overshadow me and start talking to you."

_Well, I was actually looking into that and…_

I rolled my eyes and held up a finger to the other girls. _While I appreciate the idea, I think I'll take things from here now. Which means you can shut up until I get back._

I could hear him laughing again. _Fine, fine, I know when I'm not wanted. I'll see you later tonight._

_ Thank you._

I felt the connection dull out, and when I knew he was gone I lowered my hand. "Sorry about that. It's a little harder to talk when other people are watching."

Tecna gaped at me. "You two can really communicate telepathically?" I nodded. "Wow," she murmured, looking absolutely riveted in the way that only Tecna can. "Who'd have thought the Dragon Fire connection could work like _that_?"

"Leave it to Tecna to find some nerdy quirk in all this," Stella laughed, looping an arm around her shoulder and giving her a one-armed hug.

I smiled. "So, I know Flora's mostly okay with everything… but what about you guys?"

Stella's face turned serious. "Well, I'm totally shocked, which I'm sure isn't surprising. But," she continued, throwing an arm around my shoulder, "if you're happy, and I get a signed contract saying he won't put my dad under that spell again, I think I'll live."

I laughed. "He can do that."

"And I'm sure if Tecna can pick your guy's brains, she'll be satisfied." Flora grinned.

We all laughed as a pink blush crept into Tecna's cheeks. "That's hardly fair. It's an extremely fascinating thing to think about…"

My grin widened. "Aww, we love you anyways, Tec," I said, pulling her and Flora into a group hug.

"And we love you, sweetie," Flora insisted. "No matter what."

* * *

"I'm still kind of worried about Layla," I confided, stirring a packet of sugar into my coffee. "But hopefully she'll listen to Musa."

Baltor nodded, taking a sip of his own drink. "Don't let it bother you too much, darling." He ran his fingers through my hair almost absently. "I'm sure it'll work out."

I smiled a little. "Yeah."

"And even if worst comes to worst, she won't turn you in. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know," I replied. "I just wish it would've gone smoother."

"Well, what did you expect?" Baltor smirked and pulled me to my feet. "That they'd instantly welcome me with open arms? In all honesty, I'd be more concerned if they _did_ welcome me with open arms."

I laughed as we headed towards the doors of the café. It had been one of my favorite places in Magix when I was at Alfea, and I'd convinced Baltor that I needed one last mocha before we started the first leg of our crazy new adventure. "So where are we headed?" I asked, looping my am through his and resting my head on his shoulder.

"The portal station. We can get to Earth from there."

"Wow, no dramatic exit? I'm kind of surprised."

"Well, if I'm supposed to be 'reformed,' then that lets out about ninety percent of the fun stuff."

"Don't tell me you're going _completely_ goody-goody on me," I teased, trailing my fingers up his chest until my hand was tracing the line of his jaw. Leaning in close until I was practically whispering in his ear, I added in a low voice, "The dramatic stuff? _Super_ hot."

He smirked, sending tingles all the way down my spine. "I only live to please you, love," he said in a low voice, before reaching down to kiss me. I closed my eyes, savoring the familiar exhilarating sensations. "I love you," he whispered against my lips as we came up for air.

"I love you too," I sighed. "And I'm looking forward to hearing you say that for the rest of my life."

Baltor laughed. "Are you getting sentimental on me already?"

"Me? Never!" I tried to keep a straight face, but ended up bursting out into laughter.

"Good." He chuckled as he turned a corner into the station. "Because if you are, we're going to have to remedy that right away."

"A little sentimentality now and then is _not_ a bad thing."

"Maybe. But I can think of better ones. For example – back when I 'scared you half to death' in the Alfea dorms? I can't help but remember a particular article of clothing of yours. Something… with pink lace…"

My cheeks burned as I immediately knew what he was referencing. "_That_," I said, whacking him playfully on the shoulder, "is the exact opposite of what I meant. I talk about sentimentality, and all _you_ can think about is some old lingerie I've never worn."

"Well maybe you should think about wearing it." He leaned over and slowly trailed a line of kisses up my cheek, stopping only to start nibbling on my earlobe. "I bet you look gorgeous in pink."

"Hmm," I said lightly, knowing I should push him away but for the life of me unable to remember why.

We made our way through the station to one of the portal booths. They were designed for only one person at a time, so we had to squeeze to get in – something neither of us objected to. Baltor wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close as the overly chirpy voice came over the intercom. "Where would you like to go?"

"Earth," he said, smiling down at me.

"Sounds like a plan."

He reached down to kiss me, and our lips touched just as the portal activated, taking us into a whole new life.

* * *

**Author's Note: and they lived happily ever after.**

**The end.**

**A word about Layla, before we get into the requisite sappy thank-you's: Yes, you can hate us if you want. But really, it's unrealistic for all of them to just suddenly be okay with it; Layla especially, after he spent most of the year ravaging her realm, and then the memory thing... And in our way of seeing it, someone had to be the one to stand up and say "I'm just not okay with this" or otherwise it was just too idealistic, which is what we were striving _against_. So she was our sacrificial lamb.**

**Okay, now that that's out of the way...**

**Wow.**

**This story is finally finished, precisely at the two-year mark (okay, we might've waited to post for a day or two just to get the dramatic effect... don't sue!). I can honestly say that it feels both like an eternity and like no time at all has passed since the day I first sent E a PM and put this whole thing into motion. There are no sufficient words to express our extreme thankfulness to everyone who's been following this story, which has turned into ****one of the most read/reviewed/favorited stories either of us has ever written. We had no idea when we started that it was going to become this amazing, monstrous thing (I think it topped out at over 51,000 words), and a fanfic is only so much without people to read it, so we thank you all for taking this incredible and oftentimes crazy journey with us.**

**I'd like to take a minute to step back and thank E - emberfire411 - for writing this with me. ****I think sometimes some people forget that there were _two_ of us writing this thing, so I felt the need to give her a little shout-out now. She is fantastic, and I don't know what I'd do without her sometimes. So please, if you liked this story, now that it's over - send her a PM. I get all your love in reviews, but it's not quite the same for her, and I know she'd appreciate it.**

**So what's next for us? Well, why ruin such a good thing, right? ;-) Besides our own individual stories, we are planning to collab again - I think I've been mentioning this for a while - on a slightly shorter (we hope!) piece about Baltor's trial with the Magix Council. Just because Leap of Faith is finished doesn't mean our partnership is.**

**And so it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye for the last time. (Don't worry; we'll be back before anyone has time to miss us!)**

**Love,**

**- Authoress and ember**


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